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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 






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I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



POSITIVIST PRIMEK: 

BEIKG A SERIES OF 

FAMILIAR CONYERSATIONS | 

ON THE '■■ 

RELIGION OF HUMA?(ITY. j 

/ ■> \ 

By C. G. DAVID. >'"" i 

.a , ^ 

NEW YORK: | 

1)AVID WESLEY&CO., ' 

No. 7 WARREN STREET, ROOM 27. \ 

1871. i 






Entered, accordtog to Act of Congress, In the year 1 i71. 

Bt C. G. DAVID, 

to the Office of the Librarian of Congress, In Washington. 



JOHN KENT, 

Sterkotypek and Electkotypeb, 

13 Frankfoh-t Et„ N. Y. 



ifeali0it. 



TO 
THE ONLY SUPEEME BEING MAN CAN EVER KNOW, 

THE GEEAT BUT IMPEEFECT GOD, 

HUMANITY, 

IN WHOSE IMAGE ALL OTHER GODS WERE MADE, 

AND FOR WHOSE SERVICE ALL OTHER GODS EXIST, 

AND TO WHOM ALL THE CHILDREN OF MEN OWE 

LABOR, LOYE, AND WORSHIP. 



PREFACE. 



To meet a want long felt, I liave ventured to compose and pub- 
lish this volume in the hope that it might help to familiarize Ameri- 
can students with the writings of Auguste Comte and his French 
and English disciples. 

This is the first short essay which attempts to explaio, in a popu- 
lar w^y, the much misunderstood Religion of Humanity. I am 
painfully conscious of the many defects of this volume, but my 
object will have been accomplished if I can succeed in attracting 
attention to a subject which I know is of the very highest human 
importance. The Conversations which follow were actual utter- 
ances, taken down by a stenographer, and but slightly altered in 
copy. The style is not as compact as if the " pen steadied the 
mind " during composition, but its informal character -may help, 
perhaps, to make the subject understandable to plain people. 
Those who believe as I do, are firmly convinced that Positivism is 
the most important subject which can now engage the attention of 
human beings. It affords a solution — and, as we think, the only 
solution — of nearly all the problems now puzzling and distracting 
the race. For every question in Religion, Morality, and the rela- 
tions of life it has an answer. It treats of God, Immortality, Duty, 
the Woman, the Labor, and the Government questions, from the 
standpoint of the latest revelations of science. Those interested 

are invited to circulate this work. 

C. G. DAVID. 



A POSITIVIST PKIMER. 



CONVERSATION FIRST. 

Querist, I have come to obtain some information re- 
specting what is known as Positivism, and do so because 
I understand that you in some way represent the religious 
element of the Positive school in this country. 

Positivist. Temporarily, I do. Just at present I am the 
nexus between the American body of religious Positivists 
and the European body — not because of any special fitness 
for propagating the doctrine, but for a certain business 
reason; nor am I the best exponent of the Religion of 
Humanity on this continent. It has other disciples who 
have paid far more attention to' it, stated it better, and 
could give a clearer exposition of its doctrines than I could 
hope to do. There may, however, be an advantage in the 
re-statement of the Positivist creed by one who is himself 
a student, in that he may be best able to solve doubts in 
the minds of persons who are just learning the first prin- 
ciples of the new faith. The well-grounded disciple would 
be apt to take too much for granted ; would, in the pleni- 
tude of his convictions, forget that premises were required 
to attain his conclusions, and that they w^ill be necessary 
for other students. 

Querist. What do you mean by Positivism ? 

Positivist. In the lano-uao-e of Auo-aste Comte, "the 

word 'Positive' will be understood to mean relative as 

much as it now means organic^ precise^ certain^ useful^ and 

reaV^ The relia'ious systems which have heretofore ob- 



6 A POSITIYIST PEIMEE. 

tallied have not had those characteristics. Our faith is, 
however, based upon demonstrated truths, not upon au- 
thority or tradition, or mere subjective conceptions, but 
upon objective realities which can be seen and known of 
all men. 

Querist Is there any necessity for a new faith ? 

Positivist, It is our belief that there never has been 
and never can be more than one real religion of man, and 
that all previous religions have, in some sense, been true 
to this conception. That is^ to say, any religion which 
satisfies the wants of humanity must have had some rela- 
tion to human nature, and must have been so far true. 
We conceive it to be the business of the science of the age 
to find out what is permanent and what transient in the 
various religious theories which have heretofore obtained 
upon this earth. Max Muller's studies on comparative 
theology have been in the right direction. The difficulty 
so far with modern science and criticism is that it has 
been destructive. It has shown the falsehood of some of 
the primary conceptions of the old faiths. Sad havoc has 
been made with Christianity by the criticisms of Strauss, 
Renan, and other exemplars of the German and French 
schools, while modern science has discredited the cosmol- 
ogy and intellectual conceptions upon which the Christian 
faith has been founded. Conscientious men in the minis- 
try, or who belong to the several churches, are nowadays 
sorely afflicted by the irreconcilable statements made re- 
spectively by their creeds and by the revelations of mod- 
ern science. 

Querist Yqu do not believe, then, that there can be 
any reconciliation between religion and science ? 

Positivist Oh, yes! True religion is founded upon 
science, but there can be no reconciliation between modern 
Bcience and the old theologies now taught in our churches. 
It is idle for ministers and church publications to depre- 



THE POSmVIST GOD. 7 

cate any contest between science and the religion they 
teach, because the attitude of modern thought is undeni- 
ably adverse to nearly all the dogmas taught in the Chris- 
tian Church. 

Querist, To begin at the beginning, has this religion, or 
faith, of Positivism any conception of Deity ? 

Positivist All Positivists believe in a Supreme Being, 
and yet that statement needs explanation. We do not 
believe in the God of the Jew, tlie Mohammedan, or the 
Christian. We do not believe in a First Cause. We do 
not believe in an author of nature. We do not believe in 
an infinite and an absolute God. Our God is a relative 
God, is a demonstrable God — an imperfect God. In short, 
our Supreme Being is Humanity, which we 'affirm is the 
only God man ever could or ever can know. In other 
words, all conceptions of Deity are anthropomorphic, are 
simply projections out into infinite space of notions inci- 
dent to human nature. Emerson says, " To know God we 
must be Gods," which is true. It is obviotis that the lofti- 
est conception of Deity we can have is necessarily purely 
human. We affirm that modern science has taken all past 
conceptions of Deity, has put them in a crucible, and after 
the gases have been driven off and the dross burned out 
in the fire of criticism, all the pure metal which has been 
found remaining is Humanity, — nothing more. 

Querist. From the reading of John Stuart Mill, and 
other critics of Auguste Comte, I have been led to believe 
that Positivism had no God. 

Positivist, Yes; great injustice has been done our be- 
lief by identifying us with atheists. As Comte himself 
stated it, "Atheists are the most inconsistent of theolo- 
gians." If we must have a theory to account for the 
universe as it is presented to our senses, the Theistic con- 
ception is undeniably the most rational. We, of course, 
on philosophical grounds, reject peremptorily all consider- 



8 A POSITIYIST PEIMER. 

ation of insoluble problems — of a knowledge of things in 
themselves, of First or Final causes. We do not look 
"through nature up to nature's God," for nature, when 
interrogated, gives us no answ^er. 

Querist In this you run counter to the popular notion, 
as well as the argument from design to prove the exist- 
ence of a Creator ? 

Positivist. We can not help that. The difficulty is that 
people conceive of creation as of a straight line, wdth a 
beginning and an end, wdiereas a more accurate mental 
impression would be that of a circle, without beginning or 
end. This conception is familiar to the scientists, because 
the chemists long ago discovered that so far as our senses 
or our knowledge went, matter is indestructible. You 
can not get rid of it by any process known to us. If it 
disappears in one shape, it re-appears in another. It is an 
axiom of science that no atom of matter can be lost, and 
therefore it is and must, so far as human thought can go, 
have been practically eternal. The most recent and fertile 
generalization of science with regard to forces is, that they, 
too, are indestructible. The doctrine of the co-relation of 
forces is that arrested motion, heat, light, electricity, and 
magnetism are convertible forces, quantitatively, and are 
perhaps modifications of some one force, the nature of 
which is, to us, unknown. I will not go into the subtilties 
of these definitions farther than to state, in general eftect, 
that, so far as our faculties give us any knowledge, matter 
and force are indestructible — live forever, — and that it is 
absurd to speak of a Creator when there is no creation, or 
of a First Cause when the efiect has always existed. Stilly 
it is equally uilphilosophical to deny that an absolute and 
infinite God exists, for our position is that we know noth- 
ing about it. If, in the farther progress of the race, such 
a Being should be demonstrated to our reason, we w^ould 
be bound to accept the absolute and infinite God, but 



A HUMAiq' PROYIDEXCE. 9 

modern science rigidly excludes all conceptions of the in- 
finite and absolute as not being within the scope of our 
powers, but to us simply inconceivable. 

Querist, You do not, then, make an object of worship 
of this Deity, this infinite and absolute but unknoAvable 
God? 

JPositivist. Certainly not. It is here that we separate 
ourselves from the school of Mr. Herbert Spencer. An 
unknowable God, as an object of worship, seems to us 
preposterous. If he is unknown, why, there is an end of 
it, so far as we are concerned. Our object of worship is 
the Supreme Being from whom all these vague concep- 
tions have been derived. We, conscious of will, of ability 
to act upon the world about us, have very naturally imag- 
ined that the universe was molded into shape by a great 
Supreme will ; but Darwinism, or rather the general scien- 
tific movement of which Darwinism is, up to this time, the 
culmination, shows us that all the harmonies of the uni- 
verse can be satisfactorily accounted for without the inter- 
position of any creative will or First Cause Avhatever. 
Indeed, it is the mission of modern science to account for 
things as they are, and to get rid of all conceptions of 
their evolution from an infinite will. 

Queinst. Is there any harm in people believing in the 
old version of God ? 

jPositivisL We think there is, a very great deal of harm. 
Primarily, its tendency is to relax the sense of human re- 
sponsibility. The notion of a Divine Providence ordering 
the ends of man is a perpetual damper upon human efibrt. 
The only Providence we know, or can know, is a Human 
Providence. What seems to us the marvelous adjust- 
ments of matter in the world about us, the forms of beauty 
by which we are surrounded, are proved to have been 
brought about by natural agencies in which no trace of 
outside interference or evidence of the influence of crea- 

1* 



10 A POSITIYIST PRIMEE. 

tive will can be detected. We are canstantly " putting 
the cart before the horse " in seeing an intelligent will im- 
penetrating the world of matter about us. The only will 
we can know anything about is human will, and these 
anthropomorphic conceptions bedevil us on every side. 
Nothing seems clearer to our senses than that the sun 
moves from east to west, yet the fact is that it is the world 
which moves from west to east. 

Querist, You have spoken of Human Providence, — now 
in what way can that affect our life or action upon this 
globe ? 

Positivist In every way. All that is of value to us 
upon this globe has been brought about by human activ- 
ity acting upon its material environment. The earth has 
been partially sulbdued, institutions created, political or- 
ganization formed, and, more than all, whatever we are as 
sentient beings, has been created for us by our ancestors. 
We are not exactly what our immediate parents were, but 
what the whole past of humanity — including in that term 
those nearest to humanity among the lower animals, so 
called — have made us. It is to humanity in the past that 
we are indebted for everything, and our highest concep- 
tion of duty is that we should do as much for our descend- 
ants as our ancestors have done for us. Hence, we get 
this idea of a human Providence, the only Providence, as 
I have already said, of which we can know anything, and 
the one which ever has us in its holy keeping. For some 
time people have realized that it was wicked and unrea- 
sonable to charge upon an unknown God those evils which 
it was in our own power to remedy. War, slavery, licen- 
tiousness, and disease, all forms of human ill, are clearly 
within the power of humanity itself to mitigate if not to 
entirely get rid of. If an infinite and all-powerful God 
really did rule the universe, he must be the fiend which 
early concef)tions tliought him to be, if he permitted so 



COMTE A:N'D SPEiSrCEE. 11 

much suffering to exist when it was in his power, by his 
Almighty will, to put an end to it. The anthropomorphic 
character of the old God is shown by the varied phases 
he has assumed to humanity. The Jehovah of the Jew 
was a fiend, revengeful, vain, lustful, greedy, covetous, 
proud, — a very fair illustration of Jewish character as 
presented to us in Bible history. The God of the Chris- 
tian is an essentially different being, the merciful, loving 
Father ; but, be it remarked, that no matter what phases 
the Deity has assumed, his attributes are always of a 
human type. Our highest notion of Deity, after all, is our 
highest conception of humanity, that in which the tender, 
lovino' and beneficent emotions have the controllino; influ- 
ence. 

Querist You spoke just now of Herbert Spencer. As 
he also claims to be a scientist, how is it that he differs so 
widely in his conceptions from the followers of Auguste 
Comte ? 

Positivist. In analyzing the God or Gods which have 
come down to us, two entirely different kinds of concep- 
tions were encountered. In the first place, to him were 
attributed all human emotions. Not a joassion, nor an ap- 
petite, nor a sentiment which is known to the human race 
but has been ascribed to the various Gods which men have 
made in their own image to rule over theii^ lives. But, in 
the conception of Deity, with these purely human attri- 
butes, there were other fantasies of the Infinite and the Ab- 
solute which modern science,, in all the schools, has discov- 
ered are wholly alien to humanity. The now universally 
accepted doctrine of relativity of knowledge teaches us 
that it is impossible to know the infinite or the absolute. 
This is the verdict of orthodox philosophy as illustrated 
by Sir TVilliam Hamilton and Dean Mansel, as well as by 
the heterodox science of Herbert Spencer and the school 
of John Stuart Mill. Curiously enough, Comte, who made 



12 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

the same analysis as Spencer, fixed upon the human part 
of the God-conception for his Supreme Being, while Her- 
bert Spencer formulated the unknowable infinite and ab- 
solute conception as the great mystery which man was 
always to worship. We are quite willing to leave the de- 
cision to the scientific world in the future as to which 
conception of Deity is of the most value to us in our life 
upon this planet We find that the only use of any wor- 
ship, or, as we prefer to call it, " cultus," is that it serves 
humanity — that it gives us a morality w^hich tends to make 
this world somewhat better than y/e found it — that by the 
inculcation of a higher knowledge of and love for humanity 
it improves our conditions of life ; but we can not find 
that worshiping an unknown and invisible, or an absolute 
and infinite God, will help us at all in this life, and that to 
be of any value our cultus must do something toward 
serving our fellow-men. 

Querist. Can you prove the existence of your Supreme 
Deity ? 

Positivist Certainly we can. It is with us an objective 
fact, as well as a subjective idealization. The Christian tells 
us he does not need any evidence of his God, he feels Him 
in his' heart Well, he is right. His God is in his heart ; 
but he is nowhere else. In other words, his consciousness 
of Deity is a purely subjective conception ; it is in his 
mind, but has no existence of its oy/n out of or apart from 
his mind. The intuitionists, as tliey are called, those who 
look inside themselves to discover truth, can imagine any- 
thing, and not being trammeled by facts, can believe any- 
thing. Swedenborg made use of this introspective vision 
and discovered a whole world of angels and demons, of 
heavens and hells. His dreams were true enough as sub- 
jective conceptions, — they were true to him, — but they 
had no objective reality. He was simply insane, and, like 
all insane persons, intensely subjective. The lunatic in- 



humajs^ity as the supkeme BEixa. 13 

disputably sees as realities to him, the things which pre- 
sent themselves to his imagination, but outside his mind 
their reality has no existence, and hence all beliefs which 
have no objective basis outside ourselves are so far mere 
insane imaginings, true as subjective conceptions, but un- 
true if judged in the light of the realities of the world 
about us. Now, humanity indisputably exists. We see 
its evidences all about us, and the abstract conception we 
form of humanity is as true as the abstract conception we 
have always had of the church, the state, the nation, the 
town or city, or of any aggregation of human beings with 
which our common conceptions and common language 
make us so familar. But, here understand me, while Hu- 
manity, as we see it, is made of up of the individuals 
which form the bulk of the population of the globe, it 
means more than this. Comte's symbol of Plumanity was 
a woman with a child in her arms, representing at once 
the past, the present, and the future. Oxygen and hydro- 
gen go to form water, but water is something more than 
oxygen and hydrogen, is indeed something very different. 
So humanity, as we conceive it, is not a mere aggregation 
of the human beings now upon the globe. Our Supreme 
Being has had a past and will have a future, as well as a 
present. Indeed we, in our forms, emotions, and activities, 
represent far more of the past than we do of the present. 
All who have served humanity, who have worked with it 
and for it, are still part of this Great Being. Humanity 
can never get rid of its past — nor is humanity perfect; but 
it is constantly growling better, constantly improving, and 
its future will be as much more glorious than its present as 
its present is superior to its past, and that this may be ac- 
complished, depends entirely upon the willing activities of 
those who now form the visible side of her existence. I 
have dwelt somewhat upon this conception, because it is 
of yital importance to a correct understanding of our be- 



14 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

lief. No religion can make any headway without its Su- 
preme Being. We can prove, we can demonstrate our 
Supreme Being, our God^ as an objective reality, as well 
as a subjective conception. All other gods are mere fig- 
ments of the imagination; ours is the great reality, the 
only verity ; the rest are dreams or types. So far, we have 
been disposed to treat, with great consideration, the faiths 
of those who still cling to the old idea of God, because 
that has, in its day, been of immense service to humanity 
in bridging over the chasm from its brute to its human life. 
But it has now got to be mischievous, — it is in the way, it 
is a check to progress. There is, it is true, some difficulty 
in presenting humanity in its proper light, because it re- 
quires art to be brought into play to give it an individual 
and vital existence to men's imaginations. Science can 
only indicate, but can not embody the true God. It re- 
quires art to vivify the conception, the knowledge, rather, 
which science gives us, that men may see and know our 
Supreme Being ; and we invoke the aid of the poet and the 
artist of the future to help us to show mankind their true 
and only God, that God in whom we " live, move, and have 
our being." 

Querist. Does your religion involve a ritual ? 

Positivist. Certainly ; and the noblest and most elabo- 
rate of which the human mind can conceive. It is our in- 
tention to use all the resources of art in magnifying the 
Deity we worship, — the fair Humanity ; all the effect and 
grandeur that music can lend to our praise, all that art can 
do by statuary and painting to elevate our conceptions and 
ennoble our ideals, all that poesie can do to enkindle our 
imaginations, all will be used to adorn and glorify and 
magnify the Being to whom we owe everything, our whole 
service and our whole heart. 

Querist, The popular conception of a scientific religion 
would be a very cold and heartless affair, — -a religion sim- 



A EELIGIOK OF THE HEAET. 15 

ply of the intellect, an argumentative religion, — a religion 
of formulae and demonstration, as one might say, a me- 
thodical thing involving mathematical proof by curves and 
lines and algebraic signs. 

Positwlst, Yes ; well, our religion includes all that, but 
far more. One of the cardinal principles of our great 
teacher was that the intellect must be subordinated to the 
heart. The affections were, from his point of view, the 
highest part of humanity, and all imagination and fancy — 
the soul of all that portion of our being which' tends to 
aspiration and the ennoblement of the race — should cluster 
round this great conception. This is, of all religions, the 
most emotional, as it is, of all religions, the most intellect- 
ual and scientific. Of course it is, as yet, known only to 
men of thought in its severer aspects. The class of minds 
which have been attracted to it so far have been those in 
whom the nobler emotions did not have free play; but in 
its full fruition Positivism will be the most emotional of 
all religions, and will depend more upon art for its presen- 
tation than it does upon science, although the intellectual 
conceptions upon which it is based will still be demon- 
strable by the known methods of science. 



16 ' A P0SITIVI8T PRIMER. 



CONVEESATION SECOND. 

Querist. How about immortality ? If Aye die, shall we 
live again ? 

PositivisL To that I would answer Yes and No. So 
far as we knoii\ man has no personal immortality. From 
that bourne no traveler has returned ; yet there is a real 
immortality for mxan, both objective and subjective. The 
materials which go to compose his body are of course- 
eternal. So far as human faculties reach in knowledge of 
the laws of nature, every material atom of which he is 
composed lives forever. The forces to which he gives 
birth, or v/hich pass through him from the past into the 
future, are also eternal. He lives in his work of good or 
evil. We may view man as a steam-engine. The fuel 
that is put into him, the germs of power, sets a force in 
motion which works on forever. Hence the value of a 
good and well-spent life, the conservation of our forces 
for the highest human uses. Man has therefore a real 
subjective immortality in the life of the race, purged of 
all grossness, free from all selfishness. You remember 
the story of the Hindoo sage whose wife asked him if he 
should live hereafter. Pie held up before her a piece of 
salt. "See," said he, "I throw this salt into the river. 
It disappears, but nevertheless the salt lives on. It is not 
destroyed. Only the form is gone." This is the Positiv- 
ist conception of immortality, — the substance, lives for- 
ever, but the form changes. The individuality is lost in 
the great flood of time, but all that is valuable in that 
personality can never die. Death, with us, is but a 
change, a getting rid of the old encumbrance, an entering 
into a new and higher life. 

Qicerist. But surely this is not a satisfactory doctrine to 



NO PEESOIS'AL IMMORTALITY. 17 

those who are looking for a personal immortality here- 
after ? 

Positivist, We can not help that. Nothing but our 
own j)ersonal selfishness,- the love of our individuality, 
warrants us in expecting a personal life hereafter. The 
moral conception which lies at the base of Positivism is 
that we must not live for ourselves, but for others. The 
true Positivist regards the current doctrine of immor- 
tality as profoundly immoral. It puts before every human 
being the notion that the life hereafter is the only worthy 
ideal to live and strive for. To us Positivists it is the 
meanest conception that one can have^ — that embodied in 
the words, " What profiteth it a man if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul ? " — thus making the individ- 
ual good the prime object of life. According to our mo- 
rality, the individual good is a very secondary considera- 
tion. It is the good of all, of the race, and not of the 
individual, that is the supreme good — in other w*ords, the 
good of humanity rather than one of the cells of which 
the Great Being is composed. The practical results of 
this doctrine of personal immortality, as preached in our 
churches, is to transfer to an illusory world all those aspi- 
rations, those hopes of perfectibility, which we should 
attempt to realize upon this earth, the only world of which 
we really know anything. When men live for a state of 
existence which is illusory — when all their hopes are placed 
there — they are apt to neglect the duties which lie close 
to their hands, and such consideration of personality makes 
egoism -the great object of existence. Froude, the histo- 
rian, in a remarkable essay on Progress, published recently, 
points out the evil of this doctrine of personal immortality. 
The old Egyptians believed in it, and the result was the 
extreme debasement of the great mass of the people. 
They imagined a recompense for the misery in which they 
were compelled to dwell on this globe, in an assurance 



18 A POSITIYIST PRIMER. 

that after they had passed away they should live in peace 
forever. Their hard taskmasters satisfied their consciences 
by giving these poor creatures a hope of an hereafter as an 
offset to denying them all natural justice in this life. In 
this connection, as the words have been used, it may be 
well to define here what we deem " morality," and what 
"immorality." Mr. Darwin, in the third chapter of his 
" Descent of Man," very clearly indicates the basis of human 
morality. He but repeats, however, what Auguste Comte 
had pointed out many years before he wrote. Immorality, 
is living for yourself — morality, living for others. Hence 
any doctrine which makes your own good the supreme 
good, your own happiness the supreme happiness, is pro- 
foundly immoral. This is why we are at issue with the 
utilitarian school — the " greatest-happiness " school — as 
w^ell as with the Christian moralists, who build all their 
hopes upon a future and unreal state of existence in which 
we are, according to them, to have our rewards for the 
deeds done in the body; the former molds all our actions, 
for the present attainment of selfish ends, and is, therefore, 
still more immoral than the latter, which curbs present 
selfishness for its complete satisfaction in an illusory future. 
The only heaven that we recognize is the heaven that can 
be realized on this earth by intelligent human effort. Our 
" Golden Age " is not in the past, but in the future ; the 
'' Gardens of Hesperides " are in the west, tow^ard which 
we are always marching. 

Querist, What is the chief distinction between Positiv- 
ism and the older faiths ? 

PosUivisL While Positivism embraces all that is valua- 
ble in the older religions, its most marked characteristic is 
its secularity. It is a Religion of Humanity, and its dis- 
tinctive feature, as such, is in having a polity, or an an- 
swer to all the questions which affect man's life on this 
planet. Secularism has been defined as " this-world-ism," 



THEOLOGICAL ILLUSIONS. 19 

in contradistinction to the object of all other religions, 
which was to prepare man for a life hereafter, a wholly 
illusory or, at best, a doubtful conception. Christianity has 
no polity ; it aims to prepare man for another state of ex- 
istence, and it confessedly regards this world as a vale of 
tears, as a mere place of preparation for the better life 
hereafter. 

Querist You profess to see a value in all previous forms 
of faith, — has not this conception, therefore, been of some 
value to the race ? 

Positivist Certainly. In the wretched state in which 
man has been compelled to live for generations, his hard 
struo'o'le with material necessities and with his own fearful 
illusions, it was some consolation for his bitter lot that he 
could look to a life hereafter, in which he should have the 
satisfaction of all his nobler emotions without the cares 
and griefs of mortal existence. This was the value, and 
the only value, of the conception of a personal immor- 
tality; that a race or nation in a condition of physical 
misery should have an illusion strong enough to support 
it against the ills of life. 

Querist You speak of " illusions ; " let me understand 
exactly what you mean by your use of that word ? 

Positivist. Recent researches in natural history go to 
show that man differs in nothing, essentially, from the 
brute ; that even his so-called higher emotions — gratitude, 
conscience, fancy, imagination, a sense of beauty — he shares 
in common Avith- some very inferior orders of animals. 
AVhat seems to be the most distinguishing mark of human- 
ity is the apparent reality to man of subjective illusions 
or imaginings which dominate his whole material life, 
some of them of the most fearful character. Lecky's 
powerful statement of the universal belief in demons and 
witchcraft shows how terribly real have been these hide- 
ous subjective conceptions. One of the most evident 



20 A POSITIYIST PRIMER. 

marks of progress in our day is the getting rid of those 
frenzied idealizations which in past times made the lives 
of sentient beings miserable. . Spiritualism we are apt to 
regard as a disease, of which mankind is slowly* but surely 
getting cured. All the way up from savagery man has 
been haunted by self-created terrors and hallucinations, 
the natural concomitants of his ignorance. In modern 
times they assume a much milder form, but they are still, 
now as then, subjective illusions, having no basis in fact or 
in the objective world, but merely evidences of the tre- 
mendous force of purely mental impressions uncorrected 
by any reference to objective facts. 

Querist, Do I understand you, then, that the old con- 
ceptions of God and immortality,, and the belief in spirits, 
now^ so prevalent in some modern nations, is akin to the 
illusions of the fetichists and believers in sorcery and 
witchcraft ? 

Positivist Such is my belief. Comte, in his famous 
" Law of the Three States," accounts historically for the 
condition of our present conceptions. He says that in the 
history of the race, when man first became conscious of a 
world about him, his first explanation of all phenomena 
was theological, that is, he accounted for things by a 
Supernatural Will, or Wills, which acted upon the objec- 
tive world. Later on, when the race became more devel- 
oped, and when the order of nature began to be dimly 
perceived, the fiends or gods — who impelled .the winds, 
directed the storm, and caused the river to flow — were 
replaced 1>y entities, and this was the second of the three 
states, viz., the metaphysical. The theological phase of 
human thought reached its culmination in the conception 
of a one God, replacing all the inferior deities which had 
preceded liim. The perfection of the metaphysical state, 
or its culmination, Avas when Nature replaced all the enti- 
ties which were supposed to control the universe. The 



REALITIES VS. ILLUSIOl^S. 21 

last, or positive stage, is the scientific, in which men get 
rid of all conce^Dtions of Gocl, spirit, or entity, and see that 
the world is controlled by laws immutable and eternal. 
According to Comte, every child, in its progress toward 
manhood, goes naturally through these three stages, re- 
flecting therein the life of the race. The belief in fairies 
and ghosts is as natural to the little boy or girl as it was 
and is to the savage. In the progress toward manhood, 
the notion of a first principle, or an entity, or force, or 
something indefinite, takes possession of the individual; 
but it requires the matured man to shake off these childish 
and, ignorant fancies, that he may govern and control him- 
self by the laws which we must observe if we would live. 

Querist. You say that Positivism affords a solution of 
all the problems or ills affecting the human race. Do you 
affirm that if Positivism were generally and immediately 
adopted all human misery would cease ? 

PosUivist, By no means. Positivism promises no Uto- 
pia, — is no dream. Man's life on this planet has been and 
is likely to be, for many generations to come, one of toil, 
of strife, of an eager battle with the material forces about 
him, to extract a subsistence. We do not say that the 
time will ever come when all the ills of life can be entirely 
done away v/ith, but we do believe that with the con- 
ception of the real Supreme Being, with the profound 
belief in the ability of a true Human Providence to miti- 
gate the fatalities of life on this planet, that the sum of 
human happiness will be very largely increased. But, to 
make this conception current, we find ourselves reluctantly 
compelled to attack the monstrously immoral doctrine 
of a personal life hereafter. Men must learn to accept 
realities. Recognizing the incontestable fact, pleasant or 
otherw^ise, that we are here, on this planet, we must con- 
sider next what are our duties here. If there is another 
life in addition to this, it is so far off, so difiicult to under- 



22 A POSITIYIST PEIMER. 

stand or describe, and our personal selfishness is so apt to 
be nourished by the idea of this strife for a life eternal, 
that we must put it away from us and attend to the work 
nearest at hand. 



CONVERSATION TmKD. 

Querist. As Positivism rejects personality in its con- 
ception of Deity, I judge you can not recognize the 
validity or use of prayer ? 

Positivist There you are mistaken. Prayer, in the 
sense of petition, we reject. If the universe is controlled 
by invariable laws ; if, indeed, life and society are subject 
them, it inevitably follows that prayer to set aside the 
order of nature would be futile and childish. As we re- 
ject the conception of a Supreme Will regulating our 
lives, we do not petition to have the order of nature 
changed in our behalf. Prayer, however, in its higher 
sense of commemoration and effusion, we accept as being 
not only useful, but necessary to complete our worship. 
The old form of prayer idealized God as a vain, arrogant 
human being, pleased with our abasement to him, and our 
exaltation of his virtues. It is curious how, in every 
cognition of Deity, it is always some purely human attri- 
bute we appeal to. In the more modern conception of 
God as the Heav^enly Father we again meet with human 
qualities, but of a purer and higher character. It is the 
loA e, the mercy, the tender-heartedness of which we be- 
come conscious in our daily lives, that we transfer to this 
imaginary conception. Positivist prayer, then, like the 
prayer of the Christian, necessarily consists of, first, com- 
memoration, the calling up to the mind's eye of some 
ideal of human excellence. This may be embodied in 



WOESHIP. 23 

some conception of humanity or of individual excellence; 
but in our family worship it would naturally lead to the 
idealizing of those dearest to us, mother, wife, or daugh- 
ter. The Positivist in domestic worship does really per- 
form an act of devotion to the supreme ex:cellence in 
woman, in whatever shape it may be best presented to 
the understanding. With the image to be adored fixed 
in the mind, then follow the eiFusions and aspirations 
incident to a complete act of worship. Prayer, then, is 
one way of cultivating the higher emotions and aspira- 
tions. We recognize the physiological fact, that exercise 
is essential to the integrity not only of every organ of 
the body, but of every emotion of the human mind ; and 
one of the afflictions of the state of anarchy and skepti- 
cism into which the civilized world is now plunged, is 
that our life affords but few opportunities for exercising 
our higher emotions — those of veneration, love, and effu- 
sion for the nobler exemplars of Humanity. Indeed, the 
development of respect and reverence for persons is 
almost obsolete in modern civilization. We Americans 
are a singularly irreverent people ; human worth and ex- 
cellence are neither regarded nor honored, and the popu- 
lar comic poetry of the day is distinguished for its irrev- 
erent blasphemy. This gives low and mean views of life 
to our people, and I do not care in this connection to 
dwell upon the details of the Positivist's worship of hu- 
man excellence, for the reason that it would inevitably 
excite the ridicule of the average American reader; all 
sense of what is noble in human life has been so educated 
out of him by the prevailing liberal theology and metaphys- 
ical thought which dominates the literature of the day, 
while the past, with its holy associations, has fallen into 
such disrepute that the means ^ised by the complete Posi- 
tivist to idealize and glorify human excellence would 
seem trivial and absurd. Probably the only classes in 



24 A POSITIYIST PEIMER. 

the community who would see its yalue would be the 
women or the uneducated poor. Comte, in his pro- 
visional regulations, insisted that at least two hours per 
day should be spent in prayer, the time being divided 
between morning, midday, and evening acts of worship. 
These minute directions were given for the reason that 
Comte recognized man as a creature of habit ; that the emo- 
tions which control us came to us from our ancestors, and 
that we should transmit them to our children. In prayer, 
according to him, the worshipers became for the time 
being poets; they were to compose the words themselves; 
it should be an act of individual worship. In this view 
prayer was but the cultivation of the feelings, the chas- 
tening of the emotions, and their devotion to some object 
outside of the individual. But while recognizing the 
necessity of this period of aspiration and effusion, Comte 
was careful to point out that, after all, right action was of 
vastly more importance than right feeling, that unless the 
fruit of this cultivation of the emotions could be seen in 
the daily life — in acts of benevolence — it was misleading 
and useless. In these provisional instructions given by 
Comte, he made use of the terms known in the older re- 
ligions, such as Guardian Angels, Patron Saints, and the 
like. He insisted that our lives were properly dominated 
by some ideals of human excellence as revealed to us in 
human form, and that these intellectual or artistic con- 
ceptions were our real Guardian Angels. To most men 
and women the mother would be the one to whom the 
affections would naturally flow out most freely. If not 
the mother, then some other woman, whose life v/as dear 
to us. This idealization of particular excellences should 
really dominate our life and inform our affections. It 
needs but a glance at tlie motives whieh actuate men 
about us, to see that this conception, in a greater degree 
than we realize even now, influences the lives of men and 



HUMAIN^ EXCELLENCE IDEALIZED. 25 

women. A sect with any vitality whatever must have its 
human exponent ; to the Christian, it is the man Christ 
Jesus ; to the Catholic, it is the Holy Virgin Mother. The 
barrenness, the want of spiritual and moral fruit, in the 
ordinary Deistic and Unitarian conception of the Godhead, 
is this lack of the human element. Churches founded 
upon a deity " silent forever, and asleep above the stars," 
must in time perish. Mohammed, after all, was the true 
God of the Islamite; his Allah v\^as a dream. The vitality, 
as I have said, of the Christian Church, is the dying Saviour 
on the cross, the man Christ Jesus. Look around and see 
what influence it is that most aflects young men of a 
collegiate education, and you will find, if it is outside of 
their own family in the person of their father, it is usually 
the president of the college in which they matriculated, 
or some favorite professor. It is Drs. Wayland, Sears, 
Woolsey, or Anderson. Men can only be touched by 
instances of human excellence; all dreams of divine per- 
fection are but dreams. God must be made manifest in 
the flesh before our human senses can take hold of the 
divine ; and it is upon this fact of our nature that Positiv- 
ism builds its worship ; it idealizes human excellences in all 
the relations of life, and they become to it real entities for 
the purpose of worship. 

Querist You do not then think there is any validity in 
the ordinary Deistic or Unitarian conception of God ? 

Positivist, Let me repeat in a somewhat difterent form 
what I have before stated. The conception of God is a 
summation, as it were, at once of man's knowledge and 
his ignorance. All that we can know in the conception of 
God is purely human, the projection of humanity out into 
space; the only reality in God is humanity. But the 
idealization also shows man's ignorance, for joined with 
this human conception are imaginings wholly outside of 
the range of man's powers. By the very constitution of 

2 



26 A POSITIVIST PEIMEK. 

his nature, as most conservative and Cliristian philoso- 
phers have shown, man can not know the Infinite or Abso- 
lute, and it is wholly beyond his powers to cognize First or 
Final causes. It is a singular fact, as I have stated before, 
that while Auguste Comte has taken the human part of 
the conception of Deity, and idealized it as the real 
Supreme Being, Herbert Spencer and some of his followers 
in this country have appropriated the unknowable part of 
the notion of Deity, that portion of it which represents 
and emphasizes human limitation and ignorance, and have 
recognized it as the mystery we are to worship and adore. 
It seems to us the logical result of Spencer's position is an 
entire denial of any Deity or of any possibility of our con- 
ceiving a Deity, and in that sense, indeed, it is true that 
we can not know the unknowable ; we can not transcend 
the limits of our humxan intelligence, which, as Sir Wil- 
liam Hamilton expresses it, is " conditioned " in time and 
space ; and vfhat does not exist in time and space is 
wholly apart from our daily lives, and inconceivable. 

Querist I have understood you to say that there is 
some value and truth in all religions; how do you recon- 
cile this with your belief in the illusory character of the 
theologies of past times ? 

Positivist. All previous theologies must have had some 
relation to human wants, or they would not have existed ; 
they therefore must have had either some objective or 
some subjective truth, that is, they were either accordant 
with the order of nature, or satisfied some of the subject- 
ive needs of the race. Hence, in analyzing the theologies 
of the past, we really find that they were either an ex- 
planation of the visible universe, or some satisfaction to 
human aspirations and hopes. Hence Positivism accepts 
all the creeds of the past, and in our Pantheon all relig- 
ious teachers are duly lionored; this makes it the most 
catholic of all forms of faith, and in the revised calendar 



THE WOKSHIP OF WOMAl^. 27 

instituted by Auguste Comte will be found, among the 
names of those who have served Humanity in the past, 
the leaders so far as known of every great religious move- 
ment — Moses, Brahma, Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Mo- 
hammed, and St. Paul ; all these are wisely regarded as 
among Humanity's noblest organs. Positivism aims to be 
the summation of all that was excellent and true in these 
previous conceptions. 

Querist, You have spoken of the worship of woman, — 
would not this tend to flatter human vanity and personal 
pride ? 

Fositivist, Xo ; the whole cultus of our faith is to rid us 
of selfishness, of egotism. While the man worships the 
woman as the representative of the moral sense, she, in 
her turn and in her way, worships the man as the incar- 
nated Human Providence. The noblest legacies, as we 
think, the past has given us were the age of chivalry and 
the worship of the Virgin Mother, for in both it was the 
human vf oman who was adored. This worship of woman 
was a spontaneous one ; we wish to revive it and make it 
a part of our religious cultus. The intellectual statement 
of what we desire to do would but faintly shadow forth 
the high associations and aspirations which we wish to 
cluster about this ideal of womanhood, in the worship of 
mother, wife, and daughter. 

Querist You are aware of the objection raised by Mr. 
Mill against the Positive cultus^ that though "there is 
nothing really ridiculous in the devotional practices which 
M. Comte recommends toward a cherished memory or an 
ennobling ideal, when they come unprompted from the 
depths of the individual feeling, there is something in- 
effably ludicrous in enjoining that everybody shall practice 
them three times daily for a period of two hours, not be- 
cause his feelings desire them, but for the premeditated 
purpose of getting his feelings, up." In this view, fully 



28 A POSITIYIST PEIMEE. 

nine-tentlis of intelligent readers, agree. What say you 
to it? 

JPositivist To state it mildly, the objection reposes on 
a profound fallacy. Such a statement presupposes that 
the feelings should be subjected to no discipline, and that 
spontaneity is the only measure of the moral worth of 
devotion. Now, why should spontaneity be the measure 
here any more than in intellectual acquirements or in the 
domain of practice? The standard by which we judge 
of eminence in business or in science is surely not the 
fact that it comes unprompted from the depths of individ- 
ual brain or muscle, but that it returns large results. Men 
study years, and " by time and toil and terrible denial " 
make a discovery which immortalizes them. Is there any- 
thing ineffably ludicrous in doing this ? Would it not 
be infinitely more ludicrous to expect to make the dis- 
covery without this pursuit ? To be sure, it might be 
easier if it came " unprompted ;" but we have to deal with 
facts as we find them, not as we would have them, and 
Mr. Mill is one of those who always insist upon this dis- 
tinction. In order to prove their case, these objectors 
would have to show that M. Comte's standard for judging 
of the worth of devotional exercises was wrong, or 
secondly, that his means were not adequate to his ends. 
Have they done either? I think not. It is always easy 
to assert that a practice in which one does not believe is 
ineffably ludicrous ; it is a much more arduous task to 
show that the reasons for which it is recommended are 
foundationless. M. Comte judged devotional exercises by 
their results, as the world judges everything else, and 
having clearly formulated hi his mind the end to be at- 
tained, he recommended a set of practices. No one pre- 
tends that they are complete or final. " All is relative," 
said this great master Avhen nineteen years old ; " this is 
the only absolute principle," and to it he always adhered. 



EMOTIONS TO BE TRAIiN^ED. 29 

Querist You then believe that as the muscles and logi- 
cal powers require training, so do the feelings of love, 
sympathy, and the like ? 

Positivist I certainly do; and I further think it the 
only common-sense view. It may be well to say, more- 
over, that the very spontaneity which Mr. Mill insists upon 
will come into existence in that way much more quickly 
than by trusting to the unprompted depths of individual 
feeling, which, by the way, may affect the race as often 
for evil as for good, except this discipline of an ideal is 
kept clearly before it. Every student of history is aware 
that it was just this object that the great religious teach- 
ers of the past set before them. They knew human nature 
too well, they lived in too much turbulent selfishness to 
trust to the unaided promptings of the individual. Mr. 
Mill has overlooked a very important fact in his criticism. 
It is this, that so many — indeed, the immense majority of 
the race — are dominated by selfishness. The cultus pro- 
claimed by M. Comte set to work consciously to subor- 
dinate this egoism, as he called it, to unselfishness or altru- 
ism. Now, it would indeed be wisdom to leave these 
practices to the promptings of the individual when those 
promptings would lead him— except on rare occasions and 
in exceptional cases — into entirely different courses. The 
individual promptings can be trusted, in rare cases, to be- 
come a philosopher or a scholar, but he would not be ac- 
counted a very w^ise man who would therefore abolish 
schools and colleges, and even burn all books. What- 
ever may be said as to the details to Comte's scheme, as 
it pervades his work, there can be no question that his 
general conception was correct, and that if our present 
attitude toward theology remains and grows more prom- 
inent, it will and must be accepted. 

Querist. Positivism has been classed with materialism. 
How did this error originate ? 



30 A POSITIVIST PRIMER. 

PosUivist, Very naturally. Science, at first, dealt with 
matter. The inorganic sciences were first developed. 
They dealt with the weight, measurement, and composi- 
tion of material things. It is but recently that science 
has come to apply its methods to biology — that is, to lite ; 
and still more recent are its investigations in sociology — 
the relations of men — the science of society. The criti- 
cism, therefore, that Positivism is materialistic, while en- 
tirely untrue, is a very par(Jonable error of judgment, but 
is none the less an error on that account, and a most un- 
fortunate one. The fact is, that religious Positivism is 
one of the most spiritual of all the forms of faith. It deals 
with human passions and emotions, with society, and not 
at all or incidentally with gross matter. Indeed, as I have 
already stated elsewhere, all this talk of "matter" and 
" spirit " consists of mere words. It is an expression of 
unthinkable conceptions in words of human consciousness, 
and really means nothing. The imputation conveyed in 
the charo;e of materialism ao^ainst Positivism is erroneous, 
as a most cursory knowledge of our system w^ill show. 
But we can not get rid of this imputation, due to the igno- 
rance of our adversaries, for many years to come. Let it, 
however, be steadily borne in mind that we protest against 
it, and claim for Positivism that it is the culmination of all 
that is aspirational in h imanity. 



A IS'EW SPIEITUAL AUTHORITY. 31 



CONVERSATION FOURTH. 

Querist You speak of some organized authority supe- 
rior to the practical authority exercised by the men of 
wealth. Wliat is this spiritual poy,- er, and how is it to be 
organized '? 

JPositivist In our scheme the spiritual power is public 
opinion, whose proper organ is a priesthood composed 
mainly of the philosophers, scientists, and artists. It was 
the opinion of Auguste Comte that spontaneously through- 
out civilization this new spiritual authority would spring 
up, and that no one would dream of contesting the right 
of the scientist to guide men's lives and inform their 
opinions quite as fully as the priestly class have done in 
past ages. In ay, more, the Priests of the Past, with very 
few exceptions, did not generally obtain credence with 
all classes of the community, while the scientist will 
necessarily be accepted as authority on all matters within 
the range of his studies and powers. We already see 
throughout civilization that this unquestioned faith is felt 
in the scientific body. ISTo one dreams of disbelieving the 
astronomer when he tells us that an eclipse will take 
place at such a time ; we believe him to the very fractions 
of a minute, and the event justilies our faith. So up 
through all the inorganic sciences, when a statement is 
made that a definite result has been reached, no one thinks 
of contesting it, even in those matters in vdiich we have 
the evidence of our senses to the contrary ; we unhesitat- 
ingly accept the verdict of science when it says our eyes 
deceive us, as in the apparent rising of the sun in the east 
and its setting in the west. 

Querist. It is your opinion, then, that science will take 
possession of the domains of morality and religion as 



32 \ POSITIVIST PEIMER. 

completely as it has heretofore done the whole range of 
the sciences relating to the inorganic world ? 

Positivist, Yes, that is our belief. Auguste Comte has 
pointed out the natural order in which the sciences have 
been studied, and has indicated the problems which now 
concern it : those of a biological character, that is, relat- 
ing to life in general ; next in the scale comes sociology, 
the science of society, and all the best efforts of the most 
advanced thinkers are being directed to the study of those 
questions which concern human life and society. 

Querist Don't I understand that Comte condemned 
the scientists for their specialism, for devoting their lives 
to pursuits that had no immediate influence upon human 
life? 

Positivist He did. When he began his career as a 
philosopher, he found the great body of scientific men 
unaware, as he thought, of their great function, — of the 
vast social use to which their studies should apply. He 
argued: that, after all, the supreme object of all thought, 
as well as action on this globe, should be to the elevation 
of humanity ; and he condemned, perhaps too hastily, all 
investigations which did not tend mediately or immedi- 
ately to improve the condition of men, or to bring them 
more into harmony with the environment by which they 
were surrounded. We who accept his teachings, think 
that perhaps he was too hasty in condemning so vigor- 
ously all studies which did not have human good for 
their immediate object. Indeed, he himself has pointed 
out how valuable were the apparently purposeless specu- 
lations of the Greeks in Geometry v/hich were not util- 
ized until 2,000 years had passed away ; for, as he truly 
says, the mariners of to-day navigate the seas by the aid 
of the results of those same speculations which to a Comte 
of that day would have seemed purposeless. Although 
Comte inclined to a belief in the nebular hypothesis at 



HIGH MISSIO]^ OF SCIENTISTS. 33 

one period of his life, he subsequently condemned all in- 
vestigations relating to the origin of the universe or the 
beginning of life as unavailable for any immediate hu- 
man use. He seemed to think that these recondite specu- 
lations were intended only to satisfy an idle curiosity. 
Yv^e, however, dissent in a measure from this view, while 
with him we wish- constantly to keep in mind that the 
final object of all science, as of all art, is to enrich and 
ennoble humanity as well as make its material environ- 
ment more in harmony with its life. But the very essence 
of Positivism is to accept the inevitable. Scientific inves- 
tigation has pursued a march of its own, which Comte 
himself clearly pointed out, and the investigations with 
which it now busies itself of a biological character are a 
necessary introduction to the sociological studies which 
are already perceived to be of vital importance. Hence 
we are not disposed to quarrel with Haeckel, Darwin, 
Wallace, or Herbert Spencer, as we deem their studies a 
necessary connection between the lower and the higher 
sciences. 

Querist You say, then, that your scientists are the 
priests of the future, the true exponents of the spiritual 
power which is to finally control men in all their actions ? 

JPositivisL Yes, that is our view. As yet we regret to 
say the scientific body are practically unaware of their 
high mission. Devoted to their several special studies, 
they have failed to take advantage of the unhesitating 
acceptance of their views by the world at large. Hence 
we see the curious spectacle of the real exponents of the 
spiritual power, the scientists, contented to occupy a sub- 
ordinate position, and to leave the guidance of men's rea- 
son and conscience on all the higher themes relating to 
the race, to the exponents of the old theology and to the 
newspapers. During all ages this spiritual power, Avhich 
we now know vaguely by the name of public opinion, has 

2* 



34 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

been influencing the higher emotions as well as the daily 
lives of men. The Roman motto that the "voice of the 
people was the voice of God," foreshadowed this concep- 
tion. We adopt that as a Positivist maxim, but we in- 
sist that this voice shall have an organ, and that that 
organ of humanity shall be the scientific body. For the 
present, the age partially accepts the control of the clergy- 
men, the priests, in the old sense; but the difficulty is, 
that as science is constantly destroying all the intellectual 
conceptions upon which the prevailing theologies rest, 
the old priestly body is losing its influence. The growth 
of infidelity, so-called — of skepticism, and that mongrel 
product of modern thought known as liberalism — is mak- 
ing the rule of the ministers, the clergymen, simply con- 
temptible; they are losing all their social force. The 
newspaper has, in a great meas'.re, usurjoed the place 
naturally occupied by the priest ; it is a real pontiff in 
matters of secular concern, — in questions aflecting our 
daily life ; but at the best, the newspaper is an illegiti- 
mate pontiit ; it is so necessarily allied to material interests, 
go controlled by capital, by party, by the personal aims 
of its owners, that it speaks with an uncertain voice. It 
is compelled to follow rather than lead, to conform to 
rather than inform the public mind. 

Querist. Do you see any indications of the scientific 
body realizing their as yet unused power ? 

Fositivist. Yes; we think that unconsciously, without 
effort of their own, they are coming to the front to lead 
public opinion. The organization of the so-called social- 
science congress is a first step toward taking the direction 
of society. Science now busies itself with the public 
hygiene, with drainage, and with a vast number of ques- 
tions directly affecting our daily life. A step farther will 
compel trained scientific specialists to study the phe- 
nomena of society with a view to getting at the laws 



MISSION OF THE AETIST. 35 

which control us. so that we may obey after we discover 
them. Xor can science stop short of our material wants ; 
it must solve all those problems which affect our higher 
nature, especially our affections; it must also learn to 
preach the religion of Humanity. 

Querist. You spoke just now of the artist as being a 
part of the priestly body of the futui'e, — what do you 
mean? 

Positivist. While the man of science gives the pro- 
gramme, as it were, of our life, it is the business of the 
artist to embody it in form ; hence the poet, the painter, 
the sculptor will clothe our fair humanity vv^ith forms of 
beauty, and will minister to our esthetic and affectional 
nature. Positivists place the heart above the intellect, 
the affections above the judgment ; they see very clearly 
that of the motives which influence mankind, those which 
spring from the emotions, especially the higher emotions, 
are, though not the most powerful at any one time, still so 
persistent that they become so in the lapse of ages, and 
that intellect is, after all, but the rudder to the ship, that 
can only direct the way in which we should go ; the impel- 
ling force lies in a very different quarter. 

Querist. In what respect will the constitution of your 
spiritual body differ from the old order ? 

Posltivist. That w^hich has corrupted the church in 
times past has been the possession of wealth and power. 
It is impossible for a true spiritual authority to exist vv^hich 
wields any material force whatever. The philosopher, the 
scientist, the artist with us, w^hile his maintenance should 
be guaranteed by society, must consent to renounce all 
hope of wielding power and all expectation of holding 
great wealth. The history of the past is full of warnings 
on this subject, of the unfitness of the thinker to be the 
practical man, of the inabihty of the artist class to save 
money or to spend it wisely. The effort of the philoso- 



36 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

phers, and even of the literary class, to wield power has 
always proved mischievous. 

Querist. Did not Comte give a number of very arbitrary 
regulations with regard to the pay of the priests, which 
have brought a great deal of ridicule upon his system? 

Positivist That is true; and yet the ridicule is mis- 
placed. Comte was a Frenchman, writing for Frenchmen ; 
he knew this too well to state abstract propositions w^ith- 
out giving concrete examples ; he therefore was careful in 
setting forth what he deemed the normal state of society 
to accompany it by a plan by which he thought it could 
be realized. Neither he nor any of his disciples have ever 
claimed any peculiar sacredness for the plans which he put 
forth. He admitted, and they believed, that in the pro- 
gress of society they would be altered and made to fit ex- 
isting exigencies. But as men's minds are ordinarily con- 
stituted, it is wise to give them provisional schemes by 
which to guide their thoughts and lives. Hence, when 
Comte said the High Priest should receive so many francs 
per year, and should live in a certain place, and when in 
addition he specified the functions of all the inferior order 
of clergy, even to such details as the salaries, he was but 
satisfying a legitimate curiosity as to what was his ideal 
of society. His later works are full of what seem to be 
arbitrary schemes for the control of men and women in 
society. They are not final, they are only provisional in 
their character, and they must not be confounded with 
the larger intellectual conceptions upon which they were 
based. There is not a person who would not consent to 
the statement that in times past the priesthood has been 
corrupted by the exercise of power and the possession of 
wealth. Auguste Comte has pointed out with great force 
the difference which exists between men of thought and 
men of action ; he has shown that the practical power 
should be in the hands of the practical men, while the 



1^0 MCrXEY OE POWER TOR PRIESTS. 37 

spiritual power should be lodged with those who have 
dei'Oted their lives to thought, science, and art. We 
are already familiar with the great advantage to civili- 
zation of the specialization of industries. The man 
who devotes himself to few things is much more likely 
to achieve perfection and to be of value to his race 
than he who attempts to do too many things. Modern 
industry in every department is made more fruitful and 
profitable by the devotion of certain j^ersons to special 
pursuits. Applying this idea to larger conceptions he was 
quite justified in dividing society into the three great 
classes of the thinkers or priests, of the practical men who 
had actual control of the business affairs, and of the work- 
men whose business it was to pursue their several avoca- 
tions ; but all classes were never to forget that they were 
liying and working for Humanity. The Positivist Priest, 
then, is to be supported by the wealth of the community, 
so that he can pursue his studies, without interruption, for 
the benefit of the race. This idea is not unknown to our 
civilization now, for in college professorships and fellow- 
ships, the reason for their founding is the leisure they 
afford certain men to devote their lives to special studies. 
It is tacitly understood that men who pursue those 
studies give up thereby any hope of great wealth or of 
practical jDOwer in the community. We do not think of 
making college professors presidents or senators, and no 
sane man holds that the wealth of the community should 
be poured upon them ; but there is a very general feeling 
that they should have all the necessaries and some of the 
luxuries of life. The artist class also, it is generally felt, 
should be somewhat better treated than the mere thinker 
or professor, but as a rule the poet, the painter, and sculp- 
tor are not fitted for practical authority or for the posses- 
sion of wealth. They are generally a thriftless class ; their 
esthetic natures demand luxury; but the ability to keep 



38 A POSITIYIST PEIMEK. 

money is unusual, and is very properly regarded as un- 
natural in the artist. They, too, in the Positivist's pro- 
gramme, are to be taken care of, to have all the neces- 
saries, and a great deal more of the luxuries of life than 
the philosopher or scientist, but they are not to be troubled 
by material power or the care of excessive wealth. The 
very character of their pursuits forbids any such duties 
being assigned to them. "Who thinks of making Long- 
fellow or Bryant or Whittier president or senator ? and 
how absurd it would be for men such as these to be cum- 
bered with the cares incident to the possession of vast 
wealth ! It is our hope that the time is not far distant 
when scientific men will feel, as a body, their high social 
mission. It is time, for instance, that in this country, at 
the annual gathering of our scientists, they should demand 
of wealthy men the means by which their important 
studies should be pursued. It is to the extreme discredit 
both of our government and of our wealthy men that so 
far either has done little or nothing for science. I hope to 
see the time when millions of dollars will be devoted every 
year to the forwarding of scientific investigation in every 
department in this country. The difficulty in the way is 
the indifierence, or rather want of comprehension of the 
scientists themselves. Students in science have felt the 
necessity of additional means to j)ursue their studies, but 
each one feels that to make an appeal for his special pur- 
suit would do very little good. The paleontologist knows 
very well what kind of a reception he would meet were 
he to make an appeal to any rich man for the means to 
collect the necessary museums and pursue the proper in- 
vestigations by which his department of science could be 
represented in this country. Kich men, in a general way, 
know that science is of immense use to them practically, 
and a proper appeal made concurrently by the whole 
scientific body would, I have no doubt, find a generous 



SCIENCE AXD THE WEALTHY. 39 

response. As it is, the amount of money set aside for 
scientific investigation in this country is absurdly small 
in amount, and in comi^arison with what has been done on 
the continent of Europe is discreditable to us as a nation. 
But as I have said, until the scientific body itself is aware 
of its high mission and social importance we can not ex- 
pect that this matter wdll receive proper attention. 



CONVERSATION FIFTH. 

Querist. The more or less hostile attitude of many 
thinkers not otherwise ^^repossessed against Comte's con- 
struction appears to be due to his use, and their rejection, 
of the "Subjective Method." What is your opinion of 
its legitimacy and of their objections ? 

Fositivist. The question of method is one of supreme 
importance, and so Positivists of all kinds regard it. The 
difference between the two schools into which those ac- 
cepting the designation of Comte's disciples are now 
divided, lies in the fact that one holds that the Positive 
Method is merely objective and. can consequently never do 
more than give us a more or less complete intellectual sys- 
tem, while the other contends that that method has tvro 
branches — an objective and subjective — the former sum- 
ming up the intellectual progress of the race and pointing 
out the road to further advances, while the latter groups 
the life, thought, and action of man about this conception 
of the race, deducing his duties in the present and for 
the future from it. It is agreed that man and the world 
form the two-fold object of speculation. The laws of the 
physical world govern the human race in their entirety, 
while man can only modify by knowing them. Hence 



40 A POSITIYIST PEIMEE. 

the Positive Method lays it down as a fundamental axiom 
that legitimate speculation must begin with the physical 
world. It also holds that in his chemical and anatomical 
elements man can not form a class apart. It therefore 
takes the side of the monistic school as now represented 
by Huxley, Darwin, Spencer, and Haeckel, as against the 
dualistic school of naturalists represented by Owen, Agas- 
siz, and others. No one has ever asserted this truth more 
fully than Comte. He held, indeed, that the very spirit of 
modern research was shown by the fact, that in ancient 
times inorganic nature was measured in terms of man, 
while in modern the tendency is more and more to reverse 
the process and measure man in terms of inorganic nature. 
So far all Positivists are agreed. This is what is called 
the Objective Method. It begins at a point farthest away 
from man and reasons up to him, including him in its 
domain. But now the schism begins. When Comte had 
completed his great intellectual construction, he immedi- 
ately turned his attention to the social reorganization 
w^hich he had always preached as being the ultimate goal 
of his labors. It was wdiile thinking out this part of his 
programme that the full power of the great conception 
of the race as a continuous whole dawned upon liim, and 
it was in working it out that he developed into its full pro- 
portions the Subjective Method. 

Querist, But is not this conception of the race itself — 
Humanity as you call it — illegitimate if the Subjective 
Method be so declared ? 

Positivist, Not at all. And here let me clear up a con- 
fusion into which some have fallen. Many critics of 
Comte's "Polity" arc certainly under the delusion that 
Humanity, the demonstrated Supreme Being acknowledged 
by us, is a creation of the Subjective Method, and that 
if the latter falls, the former falls also. This position is 
entirely false. Humanity was the grand result of the 



OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE METHODS. 41 

"Philosophie Positive." Comte declares in his general 
conclusions in the sixth volume of that work, that " there 
is nothing great but humanity ;" and in another place that 
'' the moral properties inherent in the great conception of 
God can not be properly replaced by those belonging to 
the vague entity, Nature, but that they are, on the other 
hand, necessarily inferior both in intensity and stability to 
those characterizing the unchangeable notion of Humanity, 
which will at last rule over the combined satisfaction of 
all our essential wants — intellectual or social — in the full 
maturity of our collective organism." Humanity is thus 
seen to be achieved by the objective method, and every 
acceptor of the " Philosophie Positive " must accept this 
great conception. 

Querist, Do I then understand you to mean that the 
subjective method is the mere recasting and classifying of 
the results of objective research, in relation to this concep- 
tion of Humanity ? 

Fositivist That is about what it amounts to, and by 
that very fact almost proves its legitimacy, scientifically 
considered. For it shows that it is not a short cut by 
which observation and experiment are dispensed with as 
some have asserted, or at least hinted. The subjective 
method does not construct fictitious materials out of the 
depths of human consciousness, it merely works up the 
materials furnished to it by real research. In a word, in 
the " Philosophic Positive " the mundane point of view is 
uppermost^ but not supreme ; in the " Politique Positive " 
the human point of view is uppermost, but not supreme. 
Comte had always held that philosophical maturity must 
bring about a real reconciliation of these two methods 
which were antagonistic in the past, and his own dis- 
coveries in Sociology, especially that sublime one of Hu- 
manity, pointed out the way to do it. If readers of 
Comte's later works would bear these few facts in mind, 



43 A POSITIVIST PRIMER. 

there would be less misapprehension in regard to their 
bearings and their filiation to the " Philosophie Positive " 
than there now is. 

Querist. But how^ do you account for the misapprehen- 
sion ? Certainly many of Comte's critics are well prepared 
to do him justice and deal with his system intelligently. 

Positivist. Certainly they are, much better than the 
present speaker. But there are sources of error and con- 
fusion from w^hich even great minds do not always steer 
clear. The term Subjective itself is one of those about 
which a misleading atmosj)here lingers. I have explained 
the meaning in which it is used by Comte, and accepted 
by us. But at first sight many are apt to imagine that he 
used the term in a signification analogous to that of Kant, 
who employed it to mean mental moods or states of con- 
sciousness in opposition to the objectivity of the physical 
world. There can be no question that such use is made 
of the word in a few passages of Comte's writings, but 
when he uses it to qualify " method " it has the definition, 
and that only, pointed out a few moments ago. Akin to 
this source of error and confusion is one that may be 
traced to it. We are in the habit of speaking of Theo- 
logical and Metaphysical philosophies as subjective, and 
when it is asserted that the subjective method j^redomi- 
nivtes over Comte's political and religious construction we 
are apt to class them in the same category. This is, of 
course, a complete mistake. The subjective methods of the 
past w^ere merely mental modes of investigating phenomena, 
and consequently returning fictitious results. The Sub- 
jective Method of Positivism does not investigate the 
world at all; it takes the great conception of the race, and 
around it groups present known truths, and points out 
what other truths it is most desirable to know. This is 
the merely intellectual part of the i:)rocess. Then taking 
the results of the biolo^xical and sociological researches 



SOURCES OF ERPwOE. 43 

into the past and present histories of nations and families 
of mankind, it points out by reference to this same great 
Being the best modes of satisfying its wants in the way 
of social institutions. This is the political part of it. The 
moral and religious part is summed up in pointing out a 
culture for the feelings esthetic, ethical, and reverential, 
which, while it will be in harmony with the past of the 
race, will tend to a better future. Granting that this is 
Utopian, there is nothing in it logically illegitimate. The 
very essence of Positivism is the necessary relativity of 
institutions as well as of opinions. And hence no attempt 
will be made to force them upon any one or any people ; 
and hence also any part of the scheme may, can, and must 
be changed if found unsuitable to the future of Kumanity. 
Another source of error may be found in the fact that 
Comte's construction is so unlike the ideal which manv 
thinkers have set before their mind and would desire to 
see attained. And hence aversion from the system leads 
to search for flaws in the method by which it has been 
achieved. In this direction, it is hardly necessary to add, 
lurk the greatest dangers for philosophers, as we all are so 
apt to think that truth and error somehow lie in the re- 
spective planes of our like's and dislikes. This is, of course, 
not a question of what we would like, but what is possible, 
taking the social beings called men as we find them. 
Whether or not the future will realize Comte's Utopia is 
what it is impossible yet to decide, but he must indeed be 
a blind man who does not- detect many tendencies in that 
direction. 



44 A POSITXVIST. PEIMER. 



CONVERSATION SIXTH. 

Querist, What do I understand by Positivist morality ? 
Have you any starting-point, any conception of good and 
evil — right and wrong ? 

Positivist. Yes ; we have the only basis, as we think, 
founded in a true conception of our human nature. 
Morality, to state it shortly, with us, is living for others ; 
immorality is living for yourself Comte's -works are full 
of this conception ; it was not new to him, of course ; 
indeed, Adam Smith, from w^hom the self-interest school 
draws so many of its inspirations, very well understood 
this distinction, and in his two great works he discrimi- 
nated the moral from the immoral conceptions. He 
showed in his " Wealth of Nations " how the selfish in- 
stinct, the self-interest working in man, did really achieve 
in many respects important ends for humanity, but in his 
"Moral Sentiments" he pointed out that sympathy was 
the basis of true morality. Mr. Darwin has re-stated 
this conception of morality in his " Descent of Man " 
with great force. Curiously enough, Mr. Wallace, among 
others, believes that this theory is original with him. 
Our purely egotistic instincts, our self-regarding passions, 
while necessarily of importance, are, if made the rule of 
our whole life, profoundly immoral. Anger, appetite, lust, 
all the powers which we exercise for ourselves, are very 
powerful, but transient, — shortlived; but sympathy, our 
regard for others, our aifections for wife or child or friend, 
our public spirit, love of our nation, of our race, all these, 
while not so transiently powerful, are more permanent in 
our lives. Xow it is a Positivist motto, that happiness 
should not be our aim in life, but as Carlyle has it, blessed- 
ness should; in other words, that form of self-gratifica- 



POSITIYIST ETHICS. 45 

tion which consists in an easy, pleasant, and selfish life, 
should not be our aim. Our happiness should consist in 
doing good to others, hence the motto of Positivism — 
"Live for Others." Isow, unconsciously, the most selfish 
man is compelled to do this all his life. If we could sum 
up at the close of the day the result of all our thoughts 
and activities, we would find that nine-tenths of them had 
some one else than ourselves for their object. We par- 
take of a dinner, but the chairs we sit upon, the table we 
use, the food we eat, represent the labors of hundreds 
of persons whom we have never seen, and for whom we 
unconsciously work without thinking of the social charac- 
ter of our labors, ^ow we wish to make this unconscious 
living for others conscious ; we desire to make it the rule 
of our lives and cultivate our sympathetic emotions, so as 
to purge ourselves of all selfishness, of all. regard for our 
own personal happiness, and so make life one perpetual act 
of devotion to our fellow-men. This, with us, is no mere 
sentiment generated by an illusory enthusiasm, but this 
moral rule is a scientific verity, a fact, which we must 
regard in our daily lives. We are aware that this ideal is 
much higher than we can hope to attain in this life, but 
then our ideal always should be above the possibility of 
attainment ; we must have some object higher than our- 
selves and beyond ourselves for Avliich to work, and this 
scientific conception of morality, for it is as truly scien- 
tific as the law of gravitation, should enter into all our 
lives, inform all our thoughts, dictate all our activities. 
Let it be remembered, then, that in the Positivist^s con- 
ception selfishness is infernal, is wickedness ; and that 
sympathy or unselfishness is the crowning glory of our 
.moral nature. Our motto of living for others is not an 
extravagant one, but one which is directly derived from 
a scientific human morality, the highest morality man can 
ever know. Indeed, all religion has sanctified this con- 



46 A POSITIYIST PEIMEE. 

ception of sacrifice — of the abnegation of self to some 
higher poAver and duty. That is why we have always 
maintained that any religion held by men which had in it 
this conception is better than no religion ; this is w^hy, 
while we profoundly dissent from the intellectual concep- 
tions of Christianity, on the whole, we prefer the most 
orthodox Christian creed to the rationalism, skepticism, 
and atheism of the modern mind. Man is made to be- 
lieve, and we look with abhorrence upon those schools of 
thought which reject those noble religious conceptions 
of self-abnegation, of sacrifice, of living for an ideal out- 
side of one's own mean life. 

Querist, What is your attitude toward the prevailing 
economical philosophy of the day ? 

Fositivist For our part, we entirely discredit the teach- 
ings of Ben Franklin and his school. We look upon the 
Poor Richard maxims as having had a deplorable effect 
upon the American character; the meanness they incul- 
cate, the saving, the living for one's self has given a tone. 
to the Yankee mind which is anything but desirable. 
With us, it is only the capitalists who should save. We 
have no faith in savings banks, or any institution which 
cultivates the accumulating faculty in the working class. 
We discourage the desire in them to save, to secure better 
positions in life, or to get out of their class ; all this, we 
teach, is immoral. The results of past labor should be 
taken care of; we should transmit all the wealth we re- 
ceive, with something in addition, to future generations ; 
but this is to be done by the capitalist, not by the laborer. 
His business is to give honest service to the employer, 
and through him to Humanity ; but we do not ask of him 
to save beyond the necessary thrift which his means and 
circumstances demand. In tlie future, the workingman 
will be in as desirable a position as the rich man, whose 
responsibility will be so great that many of the latter will 



DUTIES AND RIGHTS. 47 

voluntarily abdicate their positions and enter the working 
or priestly class. 

Querist. I have heard you frequently use the word 
Duties instead of Rights, — what do you mean ? 

JPositivisL We insist that this clamor for human rights 
is a mistake, for the only right a man has is the right to 
do his duty. The demand for rights comes down to us 
from the teachings of the metaphysical schools of thought 
which still afflict civilization. The demand for rights in- 
volves a disturbance all through society. If the question 
were one of duties, it would be easy to simplify the whole 
matter. Doing one's duty involves no quarrel, and hence 
the whole modern movement for reform commences at the 
wrong end. It is inevitable, of course, that we should 
pass through that stage. It is probable that the extension 
of the so-called rights in* our modern constitutions will 
have a beneficial influence in the education of mankind for 
a better future ; but it seems to us that far more good 
would be done if every class who think they are abused 
would devote themselves to the study of what are their 
duties rather than what are their rights. It is for this 

reason that we can not be active Dartisans of the move- 

J- 

ment to give women the ballot. We can see that all this 
has an educational influence which is for good, that 
through it women are learning their social function, and 
the necessity which exists for their acting upon public 
opinion ; but we believe that in the end the only value of 
this extension of so-called rights to women will be to show 
the inutility of the whole movement. 



48 A POSITIVIST PRIMER. 



CONVERSATION SEVENTH. 

Querist. Tou have spoken in several places of Comte's 
discoveries, — what do you mean ? 

Positivist. This is certainly a difficult subject to deal 
with. On the one side these discoveries are scattered up 
and down in twelve large volumes, which makes it hard 
to collate them into convenient popular shape; and on 
the other hand, when so collected and their due praise 
allowed to them, many readers will be inclined to think 
that it is a fulsome eulogy upon Comte. But, however, I 
will select a few points upon which to direct attention, 
and while dealing with them it will be seen how much 
Comte has anticipated upon ♦recent scientific inquiries. 
Comte was the first to discover the law of the historic 
progress of mankind. Others before him had asserted 
that man was a progressive being, but when brought to 
task for this assertion it was found to be a mere assertion, 
and nothing more. He, for the first time, asserted a vera 
causa for human progress, namely, the positive investiga- 
tion of nature ; and thus he became as truly a discoverer 
as Newton, but in a different sphere. On examinjng the 
works of Sir J. Lubbock " On the Origin of Civilization," 
or of Mr. E. B. Tylor " On the Early History of Man- 
kind," and ''* Primitive Culture," it is easily perceived how 
identical are their general conclusions with those advanced 
by Comte in 1822, in an essay upon "A Sketch of the 
Labors Necessary to Re-organize Society," and more fully 
elaborated in the fifth volume of the " Cours de Philoso- 
phie Positive," and the third volume of the " Syst5me de 
Politique Positive." No better account has ever been 
given of man's primitive condition, intellectually and mor- 
allj^ considered, than can be found in the places indicated. 



COZriTE'S DISCOVERIES. 49 

Querist. But has not Comte's law of intellectual pro- 
gress been proved to be erroneous, at least in part ? 

Fositivist, I think n'ot. On the contrary, every recent 
inquirer is making more evident the fact, that the early 
mental condition of the race was what Comte asserted it 
to be, and showed that it was, namely, a childish state, in 
w^hich the unlimited power of loill^ whether natural or 
supernatural, was believed in. Even Mr, Darwin comes 
to the support of this doctrine in his "Descent of Man;" 
and it is well known that Tylor and Lubbock, confining 
ourselves to England, hold the same view. Perhaps one 
cause of the denial of Comte's law may lie in the fact that 
a certain stage of Positivity is found juxtaposed with The- 
ologism in the early ages. It must be noted, however, 
that w^ith advance in speculation " Theologism " apparently 
widens her borders and takes in much of this so-called 
Positivity, for it was the Positivity of indiiference, not 
of knowledge. But even in this stage there were some 
few things learned which formed the germ out of which 
the real Positive Evolution in Avhich we now take part 
arose. 

Querist. Then you hold that Comte was the iSTewton of 
Socioloow ? 

Positivist. We do ; and in saying so we mean that he 
thus became the founder of the^ new social regime whi?ch 
is its direct outcome. In investigating the history of the 
race he was led to discover the filiation of the great peo- 
ples of the past to each other, and to assign their true 
places to certain transition periods which before were in- 
ordinately decried. Every day is making more apparent 
that his defense of the Middle Ages was well timed, and 
that his conception of their place in the education of the 
race is perfectly exact. In his analysis of those times he 
pointed out the greatness of the Catholic Church as being 
the chef cVoeuvre of the constructions of the human race ; 

3 



50 A POSITIYIST PEIMER. 

and in his re-cent work upon " The AVitness of History to 
Christ," Rev. F. W. Farrar quotes the expression in terms 
of praise. But it is useless to go on in this strain. His 
whole analysis of history is one grand discovery. . As Mr. 
Mill truly remarks, " The extraordinary merits of this 
historical analysis can only be appreciated after reading 
the work in which alone it can be found." 

Querist But though Comte was, as you assert, a be- 
liever in the progress of the human race, was he not a 
believer in the fixity of species ? 

jPositivist. It is certain that Comte did not hold the 
present transformation viev/s with regard to the " Origin 
of Species." Comte himself did not have time to make 
"life" a specialty, and therefore, taking the views put 
forth by the most approved masters of that science, he 
accepted vfhat he thought most consonant with scientific 
truth in all its branches, and rejected the opposite. That 
he was not bigoted is well shown by his eulogy of La- 
marck, who was certainly the greatest scientific zoologist 
preceding Charles Darwin who accepted the transforma- 
tion hypothesis. I do not tliink there is much in Comte's 
criticism upon Lamarck's views which would not be ac- 
cepted as perfectly just and proper by either Darwin or 
Huxley. Perhaps if Comte had lived now he would be a 
follower of Darwin; certain it is that he Avould nccept and 
eulogize many of this great thinker's results, which throw 
such light upon the dim beginnings of our race. It is 
assuredly no reproach to our great philosopher that he 
did not discover a vera causa for transformation as Dar- 
win and he only has done, and, on the contrary, it is a 
great merit that he was not seduced by his love for pro- 
gress into accepting an ill-founded but brilliant hypothesis. 

Querist. Comte was, if I mistake not, an upholder in 
youtli of the " Nebular Hypothesis " of Kant, Laplace, and 
Sir W. Ilerschel, — why did he abandon it? 



COMTE A]^ EYOLTJTIOIS^IST. 51 

Posltivist His belief in this hypothesis is another in- 
stance of Comte's acceptance of the Evolution theory in 
its entirc^ty. In youth he appears to have held that if the 
nebular hypothesis could he demonstrated it would greatly 
simplify the study of astronomy and throw light upon 
the origin of the earth. As he grew older he began to 
see the impossibility of this demonstration, and to feel the 
new difficulties which facts before unobserved threw in 
its way. This was his reason for not exactly abandoning 
it, but for putting it on one side until after the settlement 
of more vital questions. It is now safe to say that if ever 
any such hypothesis is verified, it vrill differ very materi- 
ally from the hypothesis sketched independently by the 
great metaphysician Kant, the great astronomer Her- 
schel, and the great mathematician Laplace, of the eight- 
eenth century. 

Querist. ISTow that we have got through with this point 
of Evolution, Avhat further discoveries and anticipations 
of Comte's are there ? 

Posltivist. The second point to which I vfill direct your 
attention is Mental Science, or, as some call it. Psychology. 

Querist. Why, Comte did not believe in Psychology ? 

Positivist. Well, he did not believe in the word, but he 
did in the thing. And whether as to method or doctrine, 
the whole subject which we now usually call Psychology 
owes a large debt to him. Comte was the first mtelligent 
critic and eulogist of Gall and his system. He saw clearly 
the elements of error in Phrenology, Craniology, Bumpol- 
ogy ; but while perceiving distinctly how precarious were 
many of these empirical conclusions, he never denied but 
that they possessed some truth. We are about to witness 
the prevalence of these common-sense views if some signs 
of the times in medical circles are not illusory. Comte crit- 
icised harshly, but few that know his time will be found to 
say unjustly, the metaphysical methods then and now in 



52 . A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

vogue for interrogating the mind. The whole study of 
mind consisted, according to them, in an internal examina- 
tion — interrogation of the individual mind by the individ- 
ual mind. Comte held this to be an illusory j^rocess, thus 
agreeing with his great cotemporary Cuvier. Perhaps he 
w^ent too far, but his own organon was a very power- 
ful one. He studied the organ and function, the brain 
and mental action, the one being supplementary of the 
other, and utilized mental diseases to throw light upon 
the processes in health. He says in one place that his 
own experience, when under an acute attack of mental 
alienation, was of use to him in his review of Broussais's 
celebrated book, " Sur I'lrritation et la Folic." A second 
process was by following the history of the race to reach 
exact conclusions upon the practical processes used by 
Humanity in obtaining its well-founded conclusions. Not 
a work on either the Physiology of the Brain or on Insan- 
ity has appeared for years tliat has not appropriated these 
ideas. One of the most recent, and one of the very best, 
on the latter, Mr. Blandford's lectures on " Insanity and 
its Treatment," delivered before the students of the School 
of St. George's Hospital, London, and just reprinted in 
this country, especially claims this as the only w^ay to 
reach any sound' conclusions upon that intricate subject. 
So does Dr. Maudsley, in his able "Physiology and Pathol- 
ogy of the Mind." And it is hardly necessary to say that 
though the subject of insanity is not calling forth the same 
attention in either France or Germany as in England, still 
the same method is applied to the study of the healthy 
mind in both those countries. Metaphysical psychology, 
whether intuitionist or sensationalist, is dead in France, 
and on its last academic legs in Germany, where Ilelm- 
holtz, Vogt, Meyer, and others, have applied the positive 
method with the most splendid results to the study of 
mind and the senses. These thinkers may owe nothing 



HEALTH AKD DISEASE. 53 

directly to Comte, but candid men will be likely to ac- 
knowledge that he j^receded them, and that at least some 
of his thoughts may have gotten into the air, which they 
unconsciously breathed. 

Querist. Did not your founder also speculate upon a 
certain unity which he called health, and a breach of this 
unity which he called disease, and has not this idea been 
criticised and rejected? 

PositivisL In his old age Comte speculated largely on 
health and disease. In the course of these speculations he 
threw out an hypothesis that disease, properly so-called, 
was, in all cases, a rupture of the unity of the vv^hole organic 
system, as represent edc in the brain. This unity was health, 
and the causes to which its rupture and consequent malady 
were due were of tvv o kinds — internal and external. This 
doctrine, the details of which can not be now given, was 
communicated in a series of letters on medicine to a 
French physician. Dr. Audiffrent, and published in Robi- 
net's " Life and Work." The theory is already being dis- 
cussed in France particularly, and very many physicians, es- 
pecially Drs. Audiffrent and Bridges, think it an hypothesis 
likely to prove fertile. Mr. Mill, in his review of Comte, 
on the other hand, attacked it in the most lively manner. 
He characterized it as an instance of the wild speculations 
into which that philosopher in his second career had 
fallen. Of course Mr. Mill is entitled to hold his own 
opinion on this subject and express with any amount of 
abhorrence his disgust with any conflicting opinion, but 
after all, one may be inclined to rather trust the views of 
those who have studied a subject, even if their opponents 
think them a little wild at times, than those who have not. 
Mr. Mill has not studied medicine or mind physiologically, 
but Dj-. Maudsley has, and it is very curious to find hhn, 
in the third of his recent Gulstonian lectures upon " Body 
and Mind," very quietly and cautiously indorsing Comte's 



fi4 A POSITIVIST PKIMER. 

doctrine, not as from Comte, be it understood, but as ex 
cathedra. Comnient is unnecessary. This idea must not 
be so very absurd when such a master in Israel holds it 
and publishes it. 

Querist Comte's views upon the past of the race being 
such as you have stated them, how did he account for 
human morality, and what was his moral standard ? 

Positivist, Positivists are all ao^reed in thinkino- that 
one of Comte's greatest discoveries was the true theory 
of Morality. He held that it was founded upon our 
social instincts, and that it was improved and extended by 
the continual practice to which intercourse with our fel- 
lows, either as (1) parents and children; (2) as husbands 
and wives ; or (3) as members of a great community in 
which each was working for the other and for Ihe good 
of the whole. In opposition to the Church, he held that 
men had organically '' benevolent " im.pulses entirely out- 
side of any real or supposed impartation of divine grace; 
while in opposition to metaphysical moralists, whether of 
the Intuition or Experiential school, that this benevolence 
was a social instinct sui generis.^ completely distinct from 
any personal innate knovvdedge of right and wrong, or any 
calculations of self-interest. This point was fundamental 
with Comte. Mill says of Iiim, parodying Novalis's char- 
acterization of Spinoza, that he was a " morality-intoxicated 
man." If he was intoxicated with it, the morality is cer- 
tainly^ of the highest order the race has yet seen, and 
hence his infatuation may perhaps be pardoned. 

Querist, Where in Comte's works can a good statement 
of this point be found ? 

Positivist. The point is so entirely fundamental that 
no reader of Comte's works can mistake it. But it is 
brought out in his discussions of Sociology in the "Philos- 
oj)hie Positive," in his short statement of ethics in the 
"Politique Positive," besides being distinctly laid down 



COIMTE AXTICIPATES DAEWIN. 65 

in his sketch of a i^rojected system of morality which he 
did not live to execute, published in Robinet's "Life and 
Work." There are scattered references to it in all his 
works, but the general inquirer need go no farther than 
the chapter upon the " Social Aspects of Positivism," in 
" A General View of Positivism," translated by Dr. J. H. 
Bridges, to find it summarily stated. Now, the curious 
part of it is, that in the third chapter of his " Descent of 
Man," Mr. Darwin, after passing in review the recent 
ethical theories of Spencer, Lubbock, and others, reaches 
an identical conclusion with that obtained by Comte at 
least thirty years ago. No student of Comte and DarAvin 
can fail to be struck with the similarity, even down to 
some of the details. Whether Darwin rediscovered this 
great truth, or vv^hether he considered it common property, 
makes little difference. He was certainly preceded by 
Comte, and few of us would have thought* anything more 
of it but for Mr. Russel Wallace's Academy article. 
After giving an intelligent account of this theory, and 
justly praising it, he imputes it to Darwin as an original 
discovery. How true this is you can judge from what I 
have said ; and, indeed, no careful reader of the first part 
of Mill's " Auguste Comte and Positivism" can fail to see 
that I have not misstated the Comtean position. It is 
surely a lamentable proof of the waste of intellectual en- 
ergy, to which our present proud habits of so-called "in- 
dependent thought " subjects us, when such men as Dar- 
win and Wallace seem to be unacquainted with scientific 
lesults obtained perhaps forty years ago and published in 
a well-known work in 183S-'42. I hope I have said 
enough upon these points to show that " Tlie Scientific 
Aspects of Positivism " are not exactly wliat a certain cel- 
ebrated biologist has asserted them to be, and that if " it 
was enough to make David Hume turn in his grave to 
hear his most characteristic doctrines" — many of which, 



56 A POSITIVIST PEIMER. 

by the way, lie never held — " attributed to a dreary and 
verbose French writer of fifty years later date," it is 
enough now to make that so-called " dreary and verbose 
French writer " turn in his grave to find his most charac- 
teristic doctrines coolly appropriated by excellently clear 
and vivacious writers, and indorsed as original with them 
by other savans, while the whole scientific and literary 
world accept these indorsements without a murmur of 
dissent. 



CONVERSATION EIGHTH. 

Querist In order to test the value of your sociological 
explanations of the polity of Positivism, what scheme 
have you for curing and settling the labor question? 

JPositivist Let me here remark that we have no scheme 
in any arbitrary sense. We insist that society is ruled 
by laws as invariable as those which control the heavenly 
bodies, — that it is our business to seek and discover those 
laws, and then to conform to them. Hence Positivists 
look with suspicion on the whole tribe of reformers. 
There is no panacea for poverty and misery; there is no 
cure-all by which to get rid of the disturbances which 
agitate the modern world. We look upon the progress of 
societ}^ and try to discover its tendencies, and we then see 
what can be done to mitigate its inevitable fatalities. Let 
us take this question, for instance, of the relations of 
capital and labor. It is our belief that the world has 
entered, practically, upon an industiial period, — that great 
ofiensive and defensive wars will become rarer every 
decade, — that while it was natural that generals and 
military chieftains should have been the rulers in a war- 
like period, it is inevitable that chiefs in an industrial 



• SOLUTIO]^ OF THE LABOR QUESTIOjS^. 57 

period shall belong to the capitalist class — these are the 
real captains of industry. In noting the progress of 
modern society, one remarkable tendency has not escaped 
us. It is the great concentration of wealth into few 
hands, this tendency to concentration keeping pace with 
its aggregation. Side by side witli this centralization of 
wealth in individual hands has grown up a state of extreme 
poverty among the mass of the community. England, for 
example, is at once the richest and the poorest country on 
earth, for it has the greatest wealth in a few hands, and it 
has the largest mass of miserably poor people. It is our 
belief that nothing can stop this tendency of wealth to 
concentrate in individual hands. The sentence of the 
Bible, that "unto every one which hath, shall be given; 
and from him which hath not, even that he hath shall be 
taken away from him," is clearly the characteristic of 
modern wealth. In our own country we see that this drift 
of things is very marked. For the first fifty or sixty years 
of its existence America v>^ as notabl}^ the country of a 
great middle class. Within the last forty years there has 
been developing a great capitalist class, and a diminution, 
relatively, of the middle class. In our own city of J^ew 
York, twenty years ago saw a great multitude of little 
dry-goods stores scattered up and down Broadwa}^, and 
in the side fetreets. To-day, the dry-goods business is 
practically concentrated into six or seven large establish- 
ments. Stewart's immense building represents three or 
four hundred smaller establishments. So also it is in 
manufacturing industry. During the middle-class era, 
when great public enterprises had to be undertaken, joint 
stock companies came into being, to build railroads^ erect 
factories, construct bridges, dig canals, and perform those 
other great enterprises upon which so much of our modern 
civilization depends. They served their purpose well for 
a time, but we now see tliat these great corporations are 



58 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

gradually but surely being eaten up by the large share- 
holders and capitalists. The joint stock era- has culmi- 
nated in the rankest corruption. ISTecessarily, as human 
nature is constituted, few men are honest enough to use, 
without abusing, the millions intrusted to them by other 
jDcople. This has been the difficulty in nearly all joint 
stock companies, and the result is an amount of com- 
mercial immorality, throughout the civilized world con- 
nected with corporate enterprises, that is simply appal- 
ling to contemplate. The only cure for this wide-spread 
' evil is individual responsibility. The corporation, as has 
been well said, has neither " a body to be kicked, nor a 
soul to be damned." Twelve men, who in their personal 
relations are honest and upright, associated together in a 
Board, are a convocation of scoundrels. They rob Avith 
impunity, because relieved of all personal responsibility. 
Positivism utterly rejects this whole machinery of modern 
civilization, — joint stock enterprises. It denounces banks, 
insurance companies, railway directories, in fact, all the 
machinery by which the commerce of the world is now 
carried on, and. insists, in its place, on individual owner- 
ship and responsibility. The meanest swindle of all it 
considers to be the life insurance business. We have no 
hesitation in predicting that nine out of every ten life insur- 
ance companies will inevitably swindle the persons who deal 
with them. The purpose of the whole business is to take 
advantage of the laudable desire of people to provide for 
their families, to take from them their hard-earned money. 
Querist, What is your remedy, then, for the evils con- 
nected Avith joint stock corporations ? 

JPositivist. The system is rapidly correcting itself. The 
small stockholders are being robbed of their property by 
the large operators, and to-day we have, throughout civili- 
zation, the ^reat railroad and bankino: kino:s. In our own 
country we have the Vanderbilts, Drews, Tom Scotts, Jay 



WEALTH SOCIAL, KOT PERSOJN'AL. 59 

Cookes, and others, who represent m themselves the prop- 
erty but a few years since held by tens of thousands of 
persons. 

Querist. Does Positivism, then, propose to take away 
from these men the wealth so iniquitously acquired ? Does 
it accept any of the communistic, socialistic, or agrarian 
theories now so rife ? 

Positimst, No; Positivism regards the concentration 
of wealth in few hands as not only an in e Actable but a 
wholesome tendency. It deems that wealth is yet far too 
widely dispersed. It regards with disfavor all revolu- 
tionary schemes. It does not believe that wealth should 
be taken from the rich man, but on the contrary, that 
more wealth should be given to them. While it rejects 
as inadequate the socialistic solution of the problem, it ac- 
cepts the fact that there is a problem to be solved in this 
matter, — but the solution is moral, and not political. In 
other words, the Positivist says we must accept the inevi- 
table. Wealth, in an industrial age, necessarily gravitates 
into a few hands, but we say, as the Communist says, that 
wealth is social, not individual. In other words, we apply 
the laws of morality, which modern science has dis- 
covered, to wealth. We say that no man can be worth a 
million of dollars, or a hundred thousand dollars, or ten 
thousand dollars, by the results of his own labor; that ten, 
or twenty, or hundred thousand, or million, or ten million 
dollars, represent the results of the labors of tens of thou- 
sands of persons, — temporarily lodged in the hands of one 
man. In other words, we say the wealth of an Astor, a 
Stewart, a Jay Cooke, a Belmont, or a Rothschild is not 
his own, — that he holds it in trust for the people who gave 
it to him, that it is his business to see that the community 
who intrusted to him his possessions should receive a 
full and ample return for their trust. The conception 
that wealth is social and not individual, is slowly growing 



60 A POSITIYIST PEIMER. 

up. Peter Cooper clearly understands it; Mr. George 
Peabody lived up to it ;. even Mr. Stewart, who lias the 
reputation, I can not say how justly, of a close, grasping, 
and rather mean man, is compelled, by a sense of what is 
due to public opinion, to build a house for working-women. 
We all know the angry feeling engendered throughout the 
community when Commodore Vanderbilt set up a statue 
of himself. The very brokers in Wall Street had a mock 
installation of the statue, to show their contempt for the 
man who would use his wealth for no nobler purpose than 
to celebrate himself. 

Querist You reject, then, the individual conception of 
property, — the right of a man to his own ? 

Fositivist. That is the question, — is it his own? We 
take exception to that whole school of philosophy which 
finds its root in mere individualism and v/hich proclaims 
as its doctrine that of "enlightened self-interest." We 
insist that the true moral law is to " live for others," a 
basis of principle which we regard as superior to that of 
Confucius, or even of Christ, for in the highest moral 
teaching of the latter, condensed in the so-called " golden 
' rule," the measure of your obligations to others was 
"" based on what was due to yourself. Positivism, however, 
insists than in pure morals there is no recognition of self, 
that the doctrine of duties and not the doctrine of rights 
should be the governing law of human life. 

Querist How do you exjDect rich men to act in realiz- 
ing your conceptions of their duties ? 

Positivist, Now you ask me a difficult question. When 
you require the scheme by which these moral conceptions 
are to be realized, you forestall the future. That is the 
business of men of great practical ability to determine. 
It is they- wlio are to say how this wealth with which the 
rich have been intrusted by society shall be used so as to 
inure to the greatest good of humanity. 



MOl^s^EY JS-O PAY FOE SEEYICE. 61 

Querist, Would this conception involve charity to the 
mass of the poor ? 

Positivist. ISTo, not charity, but justice. However nec- 
essary hospitals and asylums may be in our present state 
of civilization, we think the time should come when they 
need not exist. We look with suspicion upon the homes, 
retreats, asylums, alms-houses, and foundling hospitals 
which modern charity has shown its ability to at once take 
care of and to degrade the jDOor. Alms-giving, in any 
shape, injures both the giver and the receiver, and we can 
not believe that in a normal state of society there will be 
any necessity for mere alms. What people vf ant is justice. 
Without at all attempting to anticipate vrhat these wise 
practical men will do with their wealth for the benefit of 
the community, I will make a suggestion. It is this : Sup- 
j)ose it was hinted, to A. T. Stewart, Cornelius Vander- 
bilt, and Robert Bonner that they treat every man and 
woman in their employ as well as they do their horses. 
In other words, that the people who have helped to make 
their wealth, no matter in how humble a capacity, should 
be as well housed, fed, and groomed, have all the neces- 
saries and some of the luxuries of life, as do the horses in 
their stables. The present conception of the duties of 
wealth toward^ labor is that the payment of wages gets 
rid of all further obligation, — that when the employee 
gets his ten or twelve or twenty dollars, that there is an 
end of all responsibility by the payer to the payee. Such 
is not the conception of Positivism. Human Gervice, we 
say, can never be paid by wages; any work which is 
worth doing, that is done merely vrith an eye to pecuniary 
compensation, is work that is very badly done, — that the 
work itself and its well-doing is the real compensation. 
Hence we insist that the laborer shall toil for his employer 
with his Avhole heart, with an honest pride in his labor, be- 
cause in his work he lives for others, not for himself. A 



62 * A POSITIVIST PEIMER. 

gooa work well done is its own best reward. There is no 
payment that can get rid of the obligation involved in 
doing work for others. We insist that the person who 
profits personally by this work of another should not 
consider that any money he can pay absolves him from 
the obligation thereby devolved upon him. See what an 
enormous change for the better- would take place all 
through society if every rich man was impenetrated with 
this very obvious conception of his duty; if he realized 
that he was resj)onsible personally for the care and the 
comfort of every person in his employ ; that the payment 
of wages on a Saturday night was not the end of his ob- 
ligation to those who served him and the community so 
faithfully. 

Querist, How can you expect the great mass of selfish 
^capitalists to accept any such line of duty as you indicate ? 
They have made their money generally, if not by hard 
work, at least by hard bargains, and are naturally, as a 
rule, men without much generosity of feeling. Their 
whole lives have been spent in selfish acquisition, and you 
can not ex23ect them to change their natures, no matter 
what doctrine you preach. 

Positivist, Of one thing I am very certain, that if the 
capitalist class do not recognize their obligations to the 
community, one of two things will inevitably take place. 
Civilization will become the meanest plutocracy the world 
has ever seen, — a mere government of wealth without 
moral principle to humanize and control ; in other words, 
the enslavement of the great mass of mankind to exalt 
men of mere wealth. The soldier who formerly governed 
did so from ambition, heroism, some inspiration outside of 
himself^ — but the domination of the capitalist class, with- 
out any recognition of their social duties, would be the 
meanest form of government which has ever existed on 
the face of the earth. The other horn of the dilemma is 



THE EED SPECTEE. 63 

that the growth of an enormous poor class, havmg some 
education, some asph'ation for a better state of life, will 
bring upon us, throughout all civilization, what we saw 
recently in Paris, — what the English aristocrat sees and 
fears in the future of the great proletaire class in Great 
Britain. The millions of starving artisans and agricultu- 
ral laborers who live their wretched lives within sight of 
the noble fields and stately castles of the very rich will 
clamor for communism, and then the rich will heed. 

Querist, You see no hope, then, in any of the socialistic 
schemes or co-operative propositions of which we have 
heard so much recently ? 

Positlvist, l!^o; none whatever. We reject all these 
schemes as illusory. Yf e insist that it is impossible for an 
army to direct its own movements, — it must have a general. 
\Ye do not believe in Democracy, nor in universal suffrage. 
Y'^e believe these are temporary forms of government 
leading to the normal state of society, in which the rich 
will be the rulers of the people as well as the holders of 
wealth. Co-operation is an attempt to put the cart before 
the horse. Its success, so far, has been very partial 
indeed, even as a temporary measure. It has only suc- 
ceeded in exceptional places in distributing products, but 
has had scarcely any success productively. That is to say, 
the famous Rochdale stores, of which we have heard so 
much, are simply marts in which goods are distributed at 
cost prices, 2^^us the expense of distribution. Even these 
stores have failed in all the large cities of England, for 
the reason that the individual proprietor can, in the long- 
run, do better than anv corporate enterprise. Business re- 
quires just the same faculties that a military chief calls 
into play — judgment, forethought, ability to form plans 
and execute them on the instant when they are ripe, to 
take advantage of circumstances in the markets, and these 
can nev^r be obtained by committees of ignorant con- 



64 A POSITIVIST PRIMEE. 

sumers or producers. Every man to his trade. The ad- 
vantages of the division of labor in industrial pursuits 
should teach us the impossibility of a mass of men doing 
any one thing as Vv^ell as a true leader of men could do it. 
Co-operation is a step backward in the history of indus- 
trialism. The differentiation of the capitalist and the 
laborer is one of the most valuable results of the modern 
industrial system. To get rid of the capitalist is to rob 
us of one of the best results of our industrial era. 

Querist. Let me again call your attention to the impos- 
sibility of inducing the wealthy men to act as you think 
they should act ? 

FosUivisL N^o; it is not impossible. While we give 
the material power to wealth, w^e believe in that greater 
spiritual power w^hich w^e now vaguely apprehend as 
public opinion. We know how powerful this is, even in 
its present unorganized state, in its effect upon individ- 
ual action. Every w^oman is afraid of Mrs. Grundy; 
every man of the opinion of his set, of his social sur- 
roundings. The very strongest influences in human nature 
are those by which we act in the matter of influence upon 
others. Let the impression become general throughout 
the civilized world, that the w^ealthy man lived only for 
himself, used his wealth only for his personal gratification, 
and he would soon become infamous, — he could not ap- 
pear in the street, nor show his equipage, nor live in his 
house in comfort, because of the weight of the puyic 
scorn, were public opinion properly organized. The de- 
testation and hate of the wdiole community would be 
brought to bear on this unworthy scion of humanity.. His 
life would become intolerable to him. A Vanderbilt, fifty 
years from now", will be an impossibility. That is to say, 
a man who lived simply to gather millions together, with- 
out making any noble social use of those millions wdien 
accumulated, would be looked upon as a moral rrionster. 



stewaht's axd taxdeebilt's use. 65 

Querist. Do I imderstand you, then, to object to the 
present race of Stewarts, Scotts, and Vanderbilts? 

Positivist. Xot at all. I regard them as among our 
greatest benefactors. I look upon them as unconsciously, 
of course, doing an imm.ense social service. Mr. Stewart 
has, to his especial glory, concentrated trade in one vast 
establishment. He has introduced the cash system into 
trade. In olden time the community was taxed exces- 
sively to support the great number of stores, the army of 
clerks, the costly living of the many merchants, and also 
to pay for the bad debts of the dishonest. But Mr. 
Stewart, by compelling payment upon the purchase of 
goods in the retail trade, — by concentrating the dry-goods 
business in one vast establishment, has sent thousands of 
clerks and hundreds of merchants into fields where their in- 
dustry is productive and of value to the community, instead 
of being mere sponges, sucking up the life of productive 
industry without giving anything in return. In his store ' 
you are sure of a good article at a fair price. So Mr. 
Vanderbilt, in getting rid practically of swarms of char- 
acterless, irresponsible Boards of Directors, has introduced 
economy, precision, and financial safety into our railway 
system. The consolidation of roads v\^as foolishly de- 
claimed against by certain would-be economists, while it 
is really one of the greatest of public benefactions. The 
issue of it will put our railv>^ay system under one manage- 
ment, which I hope will some day be controlled by one 
man, for then, and not until then, vrill we have safe and 
responsible railway management. Mr. Yanderbilt has not, 
in this matter, acted in the interests of the public, con- 
sciously, but in his own. He has done things of which 
he should be heartily ashamed. The watering of the stock 
of his roads is pure plunder, and in a normal state of 
society, with public opinion properly organized, he would 
not dare to add a dollar to the capital stock of his road 



66 A POSITIYIST PEIMEE. 

more than was honestly expended hi its construction. I 
have no fears but what, if we can persuade the public 
that wealth is social and not individual, that the capitalist 
is but the trustee of the money v/hich is by social lav/s 
placed in his hands, the most marvelous changes will be 
effected in the condition of the poor, that in effect we 
shall have, in time, no poor, — that every honest man and 
woman willing to work will never be allowed to stand idle 
or feel want. 

Querist, How do you regard strikes ? 

Positivist, As necessary evils. If capital had iinder- 
stood its duties, and had acted in accordance with them, 
there would have been no strikes. If the capitalists had re- 
alized that they owed something more to the men who made 
their wealth for them, beyond the smallest pittance that 
the poverty of the laborers compelled them to accept, a 
strike would never have been known ; but the selfish con- 
ception of " the right of a man to his own," as they call it, 
— the notion that when you have paid a person as little as 
he could afford to take for his work, that your obligation 
is ended, — this has been the parent of all the trouble be- 
tween capital and labor. As I said before, if capitalists 
had realized that they ovv^ed as much to their laborers as 
to their horses, these terrible contests of labor and capital 
would never have been known. We are anxious that 
these views should be widely disseminated, because we 
believe that in them is contained the only hope for our 
civilization, the only possibility of getting rid of the diffi- 
culty between capital and labor — and this is indispen- 
sable in view of the inevitable accumulation of capital 
in few hands in all civilized countries, — to end industrial 
strife, to harmonize interests, to put to use the accu- 
mulated wealth of the community for the highest social 
ends. 

Querist. But how can these vast jiroperties be kept 



THE DESCEXT OF PEOPEETY. 67 

together, with the system obtainmg in our democratic 
community of the equal inheritance of the children ? 

Fositivist. This we regard as a great misfortune. Un- 
der the Positivist conception, no man's children have an 
inherited right to their parents' wealth. There is no nat- 
ural right about it. The wealth being social, for the use 
of the community, it should be intrusted, not to the chil- 
dren of the rich, but to that person or those persons who 
can best use it for the^ service of humanity. We do not 
recognize the right of the individual to anything but an 
education, a bushiess. When a rich man trains up his 
child and gives it an education, the child can ask no more 
from him ; he has no right to the property, — the property 
is not his father's to give. Hence we insist that the state 
should allow the rich man to adopt his successor to carry 
on his house or his business by the best talent with which 
he is acquainted. In some instances the son wouki natu- 
rally be the fittest successor to the father, if trained in his 
business, but not necessarily so. Often it would be the 
partner or partners who could conduct best the afiairs of 
the great house. When Positivist thought becomes rife, 
one of our first agitations will be for the right of adoption 
by the rich, so that their wealth may be transmitted unim- 
paired to future generations for the benefit of Humanity. 
The Communist has our conception of the social character 
of wealth, but his idea is to divide it up among a multitude 
of people. He has no notion of the continuity of wealth. 
We say wealth is an inheritance of the past and a trust of 
the present, which must be transmitted, increased, to the 
future. Hence, we insist upon individual ownership, with 
a social conception of the use of wealth ; while the Com- 
munistic ideal is a great average of humanity, each man 
with an equal share of the property. This, we think, 
would be destructive of all civilization, of all the best 
results of tile past, and hence we look with great disfavor 



b8 A POSITIVIST PEIMER. 

upon schemes of this kind. We are not sorry they are 
preached, however, because of the necessity for the kind 
of fear which these men inspire in the rich, to teach the 
latter a wholesome lesson as to their duty to the com- 
munity. 

Querist. How are you affected toward the Land Reform 
movement so-called, that is, the agitation looking to the 
division of the lands and the stoppage of land monopoly ? 

PositivisL We~ regard it, of course, with disquietude. 
There are a few men in this country w^ho are clamoring 
for the division of land among the poor, and some very 
eminent men else vf here are infected with the same notion, 
notably John Stuart Mill. He wishes that the land in 
England and Ireland should be divided among the actual 
workers, — should be taken away from the landlords and 
given to the poor, Now, we believe that if his scheme 
were carried out it would be the most grievous curse to 
England and civilization that the history of the world has 
any account of. We have an inkling of what the result 
would be, in the history of France. The one legacy of the 
revolution in France was the division of the land of the 
nobles among the peasants. France to-day is a poor 
country because of that division, — a retrograding country 
because of that division. The French peasant is a mean- 
spirited, frugal brute because of that division. The fight 
to-day between the cities and the country districts of 
France is the consequence of that division. The little 
earth the laborer got crushed out his soul. Your rural 
landholder is, if you please, a frugal man ; he has some 
of the mean and narrow virtues of a rural life, but he has 
an essentially low and unaspiring mind, and belongs to 
the reactionary school in politics. The emperor and the 
priest are always sure of the peasant of France ; and if 
Ireland were to have its land divided in the same way as 
France, the priest and the emperor would there too, in 



IS^O DIVISIOIS' OF LAl^D. 69 

time, rule supreme. Hence we reject any such panacea 
for social ills as the cutting up of the property of the rich 
and givhig it to the poor. Yfe insist that whatever there 
is retrograde in this country will be found in the rural dis- 
tricts. The flux of American life, the great disposition of 
the Yankee to change his employment and to enter into 
trade rather than remain a mere tiller of the soil, these 
have helped to cover up from us the essential meanness 
,and backwardness of an agricultural population ; but cer- 
tainly some of the most unpromising traits of Yankee 
character are due to the agricultural training of their 
fathers. When the conception obtains that all wealth, 
even wealth in land, is social, that it exists not for the 
benefit of the individual, but for that of the race, the whole 
subject resolves itself into a moral one, and is easily set- 
tled. Hence, too, v/e decline to consider the various 
schemes of the money reformers, those theorizers who 
wish to get rid of interest, to enlarge the currency, etc. 
All these are questions that have no real bearing on the 
"problem which is tlie social character of all huraan work 
and its results. 



70 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 



CONVERSATION NINTH. 

Querist. What is the Positivist solution of the woman 
question ? 

Positivist, We reject the current theories of woman's 
rights, as indeed we repudiate the whole doctrine of human 
rights and substitute therefor the conception of human 
duty. In considering the relations of woman to society, 
true to the scientific basis of Positivism, we refer at 
once to the biological laws which control the sexes. 
Clearly, it is the office of the adult vfoman to bear and 
rear the child. This is her peculiar function as a woman. 
The continuance of the race is committed mainly to her 
charge. ISTow, we insist that the female should not be 
asked to bear and rear the child and to work also. The 
notion at present agitating the most advanced of the sex 
in Europe and America is that women, should enter every 
kind of employment, the same as men, of course taking 
into account the physical difference of the two sexes. But 
it is clear that if all women v/ork the same as men, the 
continuance of the race will become a secondary consider- 
atioil. The working-woman, using the title in the same 
sense as the working-man, can not be a good mother. It 
is too much to ask of the woman, to be a worker, a pro- 
ducer, subject to all the emergencies and vicissitudes of the 
labor field, and, at the same time, to expect her to bear 
children. Hence Auguste Comte laid it down as a rule, 
that the woman, the mother of the race, should be exempt 
from physical toil outside the family — that she should be 
supported by man ; that no male, with the consciousness 
of the strength and ability of his own sex, should ask the 
woman with whom he consorted, to work as he did, and 
at the same time to boar his children. To continue her 



NO DIVOIICE. 71 

proper work effectually she should be released from the 
ruder cares of life, and especially from the hardening influ- 
ences of daily labor. Of course there are exceptional 
women — women who are childless ; those who have strong 
artistic and literary tastes ; born orators, actors, nurses ; 
women who are past the child-bearing age. Of these 
should be exacted some useful work, or they should be 
allowed to follow their several inclinations ; but the mother 
should be taken care of, should not work, except at such 
light employments as ordinary household occupation 
would give her. 

Querist, In vfhat way does the Positivist regard the 
marriage system? 

Positivist, Auguste-Comte was, on this point, more con- 
servative than even the Roman Catholic usage called for. 
He recognized but one cause for divorce, and that was not 
adultery. It was w^here the husband has been declared 
infamous by the law, has been designated an unworthy 
member of the community, one to whom it would be wrong 
to commit the care of a wife or the moral training of chil- 
dren. Indeed, Comte was so strict in his conception of 
the relation of husband and wife, that he insisted a true 
marriage should last forever, that neither should ever 
re-marry, even in the event of the death of his or her 
partner. He did not, of course, suppose that — even if 
wdiat he conceived to be the normal state of society should 
ever be realized — this conception would be fully carried 
out ; but he did expect that the finer spechnens of the 
race, the noble men and women of the future, would de- 
cline to form a second alliance after the death of the first 
wife or husband. He was of the opinion that such touch- 
ing devotion as was shown in the past by Petrarch to 
Laura, by Dante to Beatrice, and in our own day by John 
Stuart Mill to the memory of his dead wife, would then 
become common. His ideas respectincT divorce were 



72 A FOSITIYIST PRIMER. 

founded upon his coiideption of duty, and were also de- 
rived from a study of the relations of the parents to their 
' young. In the animal creation, the birds and beasts usu- 
ally remain together until their young are able to shift for 
themselves. This is the general rule throughout the ani- 
mal kingdom, to "vvhich, of course, there are some excep- 
tions. In our most advanced society there is now a recog- 
nition of the desirability of the influence of both father and 
mother upon the child, vfhich would be quite out of the 
question in a community where divorces are frequent. 
Re-marriage necessarily involves the loss to the child of 
the care of one or the other parent, and subjects it to the 
caprices and often the dislike of the new partner in the 
marriage relation. Every one. of us can realize the misery 
resulting from the relations of stepmother and stepfather 
to the child, and under the Positivist scheme such family 
discomforts would be discountenanced. If, then, the hu- 
man pair were to aim at no higher standard than the 
morality of the brutes in relation to their oflspring, they 
Avould remain together until the maturity of their first 
young, say twenty years. But, in the mean time, other 
children are usually born, which brings the age of the 
parents up to sixty years at least before they are released 
from obligation to their children. Even the most insane 
reformer of the marriage relation would not argue in favor 
of old couples of sixty years being divided by law, or that 
freedom from the marriage tie should commence at that 
age. Hence, practically by observing the simplest rules 
of duty toward the young, m.arriage is indissoluble, except 
by the death of one or the other of the partners ; and then, 
as Comte pointed out, if there was that devotion to the 
memory of the other partner which married couples should 
entertain, the thought of a second marriage would be re- 
pulsive to the right thinking man or Avoman, as it is to the 
great woman's champion, John Stuart Mill. 



disixtegratio:n' of mareiage. 73 

Querist, As I have heretofore understood you, you say 
that the Positivist accepts accomplished facts, observes 
the course of society, and conforms thereto. Now, is it 
not obvious that since the Reformation down to the pres- 
ent time, the course of legislation has constantly tended 
toward the so-called freedom of the affections to easier 
and still easier divorce ? 

Positivist, That is undoubtedly true. Every legal en- 
actment upon the subject of marriage, since the time of 
the Reformation, has tended to loosen the bonds of matri- 
mony, — indeed the Reformation itself, both in Germany 
and England, was largely made up of people restive under 
the restraints of the old church in this regard. This was 
the case with both Martin Luther and Henry YIII. Every 
new departure from the regime of the Catholic Church 
has been promptly followed by enactments favoring or 
admitting of divorce, and getting nearer and nearer to 
the ideal of freedom preached by our modern marriage 
reformers. This tendency we admit and deplore^ and we 
insist that it is one of the baleful results of the metaphys« 
ical era of thought through which we have passed, and 
from which we are but just emerging, — that it follows log- 
ically from the doctrine of human rights preached by the 
metaphysicians and legists, which we regard as without 
any basis in the constitution of man and society. When 
science points out the laws we should obey, we will find 
that marriage Avill be put upon a very different footing, 
and that the course of legislation and public opinion will 
not be toward looser unions, but closer ones ; not to free 
divorce, but the institution of an indissoluble tie, a union 
for life. The metaphysical era has been essentially criti- 
cal and destructive. It was the natural solvent of old in- 
stitutions, — a period of transition and anarcliy, and was 
necessary to provide the materials for a reconstruction of 
Bociety. In this respect, its use still continues, and the 

4 



74 ^ A POSITIYIST PEI31EE. 

^so-called reformers of the age are merely destructive. 
The schools of thought, in this country and Europe, which 
call themselves liberal and rational, have thus far been en- 
gaged entirely in tearing down, not in building up. This 
has been as true with respect to marriage as of every 
other institution touched by them, and we must expect 
that, for a time, this disintegrating process will continue. 
It is already bearing bitter fruit in this country, in the 
disruption- of families, the loosening of the ties between 
husband and wife, in diminishing the sense of responsibil- 
ity for the care of children, and in weakening the whole 
tone of sexual morality throughout the nation. 

Querist, Let me understand you more definitely : Is it 
the Positivist belief that, in the reaction from this tend- 
ency, something analogous to the old Roman Catholic 
conception of marriage is to be reinstated in civilized 
society ? 

Positivist. 1^0. The old Catholic conception of mar- 
riage was that of a sacrament, an institution of God; that 
is, a revelation of a Power outside of us for our guidance 
and care. That notion served a good purpose in its day. 
Indeed, w^ithout it, the progress of society would have 
been impossible; but marriage in the future will be re- 
garded from a purely human standpoint. The considera- 
tions Avith the sociologists will be, "^Yhat form should 
this institution take to best minister to the wants of the 
race?" and "Hov/ can it best be m.ade to secure the hap- 
piness of persons taking upon tliemselves the responsibili- 
ties of this relation ? " Clearly, in considering this matter, 
the scientists who will have it in charge v>4ll consider, 
first, as of prime importance, " How is the race to be l)est 
continued ? " The haphazard way in which children are 
now born would not be tolerated in a scientifically con- 
structed society. They come now as the ofispriiig of lust, 
of chance, of accident. With the evidences all about us 



SCIENTIFIC MARRIAGE. 75 

of the A^alue of forethonght, of care, of wise human provi- 
dence in the perfecting of animals and plants, it will be 
inevitable that these same wise human precautions will be 
taken in the propagation of children. How this is to be 
done we do not pretend to say ; but that the continuance 
of the race should not be left to the ignorant, the vicious, 
to chance and lust, is so clear that we are sure that in the 
future constitution of society this matter will be altogether 
reformed, — that those whose physical and moral constitu- 
tions are such that they should not continue the race will 
be prevented from doing so by a wise public opinion, and 
that to the physically and morally sound w^ill be committed 
the business of peopling the earth. 

Querist. Do you find any warrant for this in Comte's 
writings ? 

Positivist. Xot in express words, but the whole tenor 
and scope' of the Positivist philosophy point to that re- 
sult. Indeed I, for one, am in some doubt with regard to 
the programme which Comte has put forth on this ques- 
tion, even while agreeing with my fellow co-religionists in 
advocating it as the best scheme of which we at present 
have any knowledge. It is the ennobling and idealizing 
of the marriage and family relation as we find it in civili- 
zation, which Comte urges. Monogamy is undoubtedly 
the institution under which the best specimens of the race 
have been born, and all civilized nations adopt it instinc- 
tively. It may be that the future will develop some form 
of marriage of which we now know practically nothings 
but we must not anticipate the future. Our business is to 
accept the present and do the best we can with the ma- 
terials in our possession, — hence the monogamic concep- 
tion of marriage being more altruistic, less selfish, con- 
forming to the present and past morality on tlie subject, 
we give it our unhesitating adhesion, even tliough we may 
suspect that the future has^ something better in store for 



76 A POSITIVIST PRIMEE. 

US. Here let me remark that many of the schemes 
of the Positivists are necessarily provisional. Like all 
scientists, as soon as a certain set of phenomena are be- 
foi'e us we form an hypothesis to account for them. 
Further discoveries, informing us of a different set of 
phenomena, may necessitate another hypothesis — but 
finally some general theory, embracing all the phenom- 
ena, based upon and supported by 'all, settles the question 
forever. An illustration of this is found in Geology. 
At first, from the evidences of watery formation in every 
part of the globe, the aqueous theory of the origin of the 
earth was propounded, and for a time did very well. It 
explained a great many facts. Subsequently, evidences 
of igneous origin were also found in every direction, and 
then it was supposed that the world was born of fire. 
But a further and higher generalization showed that both 
fire and water were active agents in producing the world 
as it is, and so Geology advances from minor hypotheses 
to larger generalizations, — from those which while true 
were still not the whole truth, — until finally the science 
will arrive at some such point of perfection as Astronomy 
has now reached. The process has been the same with 
reference to human institutions. We generalize the phe- 
nomena as they are presented to us, and are ready to form 
new theories and new schemes as additional facts are 
found which it is necessary to incorporate into the general 
scheme. We abhor the kind of license now preached by 
our marriage reformers. It is purely earthly, sensual, and 
devilish, — looks only to the gratification of the individ- 
ual, — aims only at a riot of the passions with whatever 
honeyed phrases its advocates endeavor to cloak it and con- 
ceal its true character. No form of mari-iage can be per- 
manent that is not altruistic, that does not involve self-sur- 
render, that does not place a higher valuation on the dig- 
nity of the mutual relation and the welfare of the child 



WOMEK AIS^D PROPERTY. 77 

than upon the gratification of the individual. We have 
no patience with the men and women who, imder a cover 
of fine phrases and euphemisms, preach the so-called doc- 
trine of free love. There is no such thing as free love. 
All love should be subordinate to high human uses. That 
which is advocated is merely free lust. 

Qxierist, What have you to say with regard to Comte's 
notions respecting the right of woman to hold property ? 

Positivist He argued that woman should not be allowed 
the possession of property, should have no right to dower, 
and the reasons he adduced therefor were wise and good. 
It was to prevent mercenary marriages, to prohibit in the 
future the union of the old and the young, and so secure 
a better human progeny. Under the reghne that he in- 
dicated, women were taken care of, were not to labor, were 
to be supported by the toil of the man, and hence, being 
in possession of all the necessaries and some, at least, of 
the comforts of life, and these secured to her, there would 
be no object in woman's having property of her own. 
Women do very well in the small economies of life, but it 
is very rare that they achieve great fortunes, or are wise 
in the disposition of them. The kindly, loving character 
of women should not be tampered with and made hard, 
coarse, and unsympathetic' as the amassers and owners of 
large properties are apt to become, — indeed, must become, 
in order to retain their great possessions. Th.e capitalists 
must be saving and selfish to hold what they have ob- 
tained. Hence, for the good of the race and for her own 
good, woman is, in the Positivist scheme, if you please so 
to denominate her position, a dependent. 

Querist, Would this not give rather a low conception 
of the function of woman ? 

.Positivist, Xot at all. In our ideal of society the Wo- 
man is worshiped. Humanity is represented by her, and 
as mother, wife, sister, and daughter we do literally wor- 



78 A POSITIYIST PllIMEE. 

ship her. We idealize woman, relieve her of all care and 
devote our lives to her welfare. Hovv^ much nobler a con- 
ception is this, than that v/oman should work side by side 
with man, should be the possessor of property, and to be- 
come so, should struggle and scramble w^ith man for wealth 
and material power. As Comte very well says, " If earth 
were the fabled heaven of the Christian Utopia, woman^s 
superiority in goodness over man would make her the 
best person to rule ;" but as we do not live in Utopia, 
but in a hard world, where subsistence is with difficulty 
extracted from the soil, it is the muscle, the hard practical 
talent of man, vfhich must bear the sway. The man, there- 
fore, goes to the front in the battle of life. The place of 
woman is in the rear, — there is no help for it, — it is one of 
the fatalities of our earthly existence. Woman can rule 
man only through his affections, and must submit to his 
authority in matters of wealth, of labor, and of practical 
life. 



CONVERSATION TENTH. 

Querist, In reading the comments of various English 
and French authors upon Auguste Comte, I find that his 
science of sx)ciety is described as arbitrary, as something 
projected out of his own inner consciousness, yet T see 
that you do not so regard it, but that you think the 
various plans which occurred to him result from the nor- 
mal constitution of man in society. 

Positwist, Yes; we so regard it. We repudiate en- 
tirely the notion tliat the schemes which he propounded 
were mere arbitrary creations of his own mind. Comte 
always had a complete justification in the constitution of 
human nature itself for even the most extraordinary de* 



PHILOSOPHY OF HISTOEY. 79 

partures from the apparent order of things which he pro- 
posed. Yv^ith liini, the present was derived immediately 
from the past, and the future naturally grevr out of the 
present. In other words, he r^pudinted absolutely all 
schemes which commenced, de novo^ from the individual 
himself, without thought of the past or the present. Re- 
formers — nearly all the Communists and Socialists notably 
so — have derived their schemes of society from ideal and 
abblracted conceptions of human rights and human per- 
fectibility. While they aim to redress wrongs which do 
undoubtedly exist, they are unpractical by reason of neg- 
lecting to take cognizance of society as constituted, and 
not understanding that present institutions are simply the 
outgrowth of those of the past, and that any scheme 
which looks to the future must make allowances for the 
present tendencies of societj^ The twentieth century 
must be evolved out of the nineteenth, andc whatever in- 
stitutions will flourish then are rudimentary to-day. Mill 
has admitted that Auguste Comte was the creator of the 
philosophy of history: the conception did not exist be- 
fore his time, and he not only conceived of such a phi- 
losophy, and mad.e it possible, but he also was its first ex- 
ponent. To charge him with overlooking the influence of 
the present upon the future, is to forget the immense ser- 
vice he has rendered to philosophy by that splendid con- 
ception. 

Querist. How do you account for these misconceptions 
to which you say he is subjected by the leading writers of 
England, France, and America who have written about 
him ? ' 

Positivist. In this way : Had Comte been able to wait 
until the completion of his system before he published his 
works, it is probable that he would not have been so mis- 
conceived ; but his first great publication was his "Philos- 
ophic Positive." This was immediately judged upon its 



80 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

merits by the leading Scientists of Europe, and it was so 
much in advance of the thought current at that time that 
it only received tlie adhesioii, often but partial, of a few 
of the then living philosophers. Among them were some 
very eminent names, such as John Stuart Mill, Grote the 
historian, George Henry Lewes, M. Littre, Sir W. Moles- 
worth, and other leading thinkers and writers. These par- 
tial or entire advocates of the Positivist philosophy found 
themselves in a measure compelled to defend their posi- 
tions. They did so on inadequate grounds, not realizing 
the greatness of Comte's genius or the vastness of his dis- 
coveries. When his second great work was published, his 
"Politique Positive," they were astonished to find that 
those vast generalizations which Comte had in his first 
book confined to science and history, he had now applied 
to religion and morality, or, in a word, to sociology. It so 
happened that most of those writers had naturally belong- 
ed to the various metaphysical schools in existence prior 
to the propagation of Comte's philosophy, and were full 
of the irreverence and distrust of religion which the litera- 
ture of modern Europe has made popular among advanced 
thinkers. They were astonished ; more than that, they were 
disquieted, and even alarmed, and loudly protested that 
while they accepted, in a measure, the Positive philosophy, 
they rejected entirely the Religion of Humanity as being 
alien to it, and as a departure from the true method to be 
pursued in philosophy. In other words, they claimed that 
Comte had himself gone back upon all his previous labors 
and had deserted the objective for the subjective method. 
The great difficulty in the way is, that Comte is probably 
a hundred years ahead of his time. His was too vast a 
mind to be thoroughly comprehended by his own imme- 
diate age. The old Greek story will suggest itself to you, 
of the two sculptors who were contending for the honor 
of placing the statue of Zeus upon the Parthenon. The 



COMTE AHEAD OF HIS AGE. 81 

"VTork of one was a finely lined, beautifully formed, and fin- 
ished figure ; the other, viewed near at hand, was a rude, 
apparently shapeless mass of stone. The sculptor who 
formed the latter was loudly condemned by the ignorant 
populace ; but when the trial came, and the small statue 
was jDlaced on the dizzy height, it could not be seen ; while 
the apparently shapeless mass revealed its true grandeur 
of conception and magnificence of execution only when 
lifted to that height which softened and harmonized its 
outlines. So it is with Comte. His proportions are so 
vast, so massive, that this age, and perhaps the next, will 
not do him full justice. He is so immeasurably superior 
to every other philosopher of this century, that they have 
yet to learn how great he is in proportion to them, or 
rather, they will never learn it, but their descendants a 
hundred vears from now will do so. We reo'ard him as 
being probably the greatest brain and heart that this 
planet has ever seen. 

Querist, Is there not danger that this feeling may de- 
generate into something like personal idolatry ? 

Posit iv 1st. Xo, there is no danger under the Positivist 
system of making any man a God. The glory of the 
Religion of Humanity is that it admits its own imperfec- 
tions. Progress is one of its laws. We are discovering 
new harmonies, new unities every day, and there is no 
danger of our degenerating into any mere man vrorship, 
or taking every word of Comte as being inspired. Un- 
doubtedly the science and philosophy of the future will be 
as much superior to his as his was to that which preceded 
him ; — but we insist that, as yet, civilization has not 
reached the height that he marked out for it, and it is idle 
to talk of a beyond when even he is not properly under- 
stood bv the best minds of the age, nor, indeed, can he 
be. 

Querist, You do not look, then, for the acceptance of 
4* 



82 A POSITIVIST PKIMEE. 

the Positivist pliilosophy and religion among the most ed- 
ucated and cultured classes ? 

Fositivist. No; no religion ever yet, that has been of 
vital worth to the race, has commenced among the cul- 
tured and wealthy classes, but is always the offspring of 
the common earth of humanity, those whom Mr. Lincoln 
called the " plain people." A new religion, to be vital, 
must have its roots in the soil. It can not commence to 
grow from the branches downward. Hence, we do not 
aim to get at the wealthy, the professional, or the so-called 
educated classes. Positivism has a great affinity for the 
working classes, and it is they who have the first essential 
right to a knowledge of its principles and aims. Its pur- 
pose is, as the Religion of Humanity, to incorporate the 
proletaires into the social order, to make them a part of 
the life of the time. Hence in England we find the most 
active adherents of the cause of the working classes to be 
our advanced Positivists, those who believe in the Religion 
of Humanity. In the contest between capital and labor, 
they invariably take the side of labor. 

Querist A word again on the woman question. In 
what way does the school of Comte difier from that of 
Herbert Spencer upon this problem, especially with refer- 
ence to the relations between the sexes ? 

Positivist. We do not, as yet, exactly know what Mr. 
Herbert Spencer's position upon this question really is, 
and we very much doubt if he himself knows. It is very 
certain that the position he took in his " Social Statics," in 
regard to the rights of woman, he has since very greatly 
modified. His sociology, we are inclined to believe, will 
give very difierent results from those embodied by him in 
former works. At present, the reformers of marriage — 
the believers in woman's rights so-called — look hopefully 
on Herbert S])encer as their great apostle; but we can not 
Bee how he can avoid reaching substantially the same con- 



I^'TEGRATIOX OVERLOOKED. 83 

elusions as Augiiste Comte has, as he pursues farther his 
scientific studies. Some vears ao;o he admitted his very 
great ignorance of the writings of Comte, and he made a 
mistake, as we think, in criticising him while confessedly 
ignorant of the views which the Master had propounded. 
For his noted criticism upon Comte's " History of the Sci- 
ences," he was himself, in turn, severely criticised by Mill, 
Lewes, Littre, and by nearly all who gave attention to the 
subject. Spencer has a few ill-informed adherents in this 
country, even on that point, but they are of ^'ery little 
account. Spencer's personal experience has not been so 
varied as that of Comte, for the latter knew both the bliss 
of a happy love and the misery of an unfortunate mar- 
riage, while Spencer is a bachelor, and what his heart- 
experiences have been no one knows. So far, his writings 
would seem to identify him with the individualistic school; 
but if his sociology is to be of any value, he can not remain 
in that position. The very biological law upon v^'hich he has 
insisted with so much force must make him a sociologist 
in the Comtean sense. By the terms of thxit law, as ob- 
jects or institutions differentiate, they also integrate — that 
is to say, as the homogeneous object becomes heterogene- 
ous, the mass of vrhich it is composed becomes integrated. 
Xow, the universal statement of the individualists is, that 
you must get rid of government or control as the individ- 
ual perfects. They see but half the truth. As the organ- 
ism becomes more heterogeneous, more differentiated, it 
also becomes more highly vitalized. The jelly-fish is a 
mere pulp of gelatinous substance — it is almost without 
Irfe ; but as VN^e ascend through the gradations of animal 
life, forms increase in complexity, new functions cause 
newly required organs to appear, and the organization be- 
comes more higlily vitalized, more perfected. It is this 
integration which Spencer and Mill, and that whole school, 
have overlooked; and when they point out in society the 



84 A POSITIVIST PEIMER. 

individualizing or differencing of structures, they have for- 
gotten the other part of the biological law, which shows 
that, with this differentiation, a higher integration takes 
place. Man shows the possession of a mass of functions 
which the lower animals have not, but then man is a far 
more integrated being than the lower forms from which 
he sprang. So, take our own government and compare it 
to the simple patriarchism of early times, and it exceeds 
that simpler form as much in its integration, in its 
power, in its ability, in its faculty for doing things, as it 
does in the vast variety of functions to which it gives 
birth. Instead of the law of liberty being developed by 
the evolution of humanity in its various stages of progress, 
we could generalize, if we pleased, a law of subordination, 
and would say that for every new function there is a new 
limitation. The worm, with a single intestine, is subject 
to far fewer conditions of life than the highly organized 
man. In like manner, the despotism controlled by a single 
will is under fewer restraints than is the highly civilized 
and integrated American republic. In the former, one 
will is the only law; but in our multifariously complex 
structure of government, man is surrounded by a host of 
limitations unknown to the savage under the direct control 
of his despotic chief. We have not only national, but 
State, city, county, and township laws. Not satisfied with 
these, we have our voluntary associations. We belong to 
a church — more law ; to a Masonic or Odd Fellows' lodge 
— more law, more limitations of individual liberty. In- 
deed, your very decriers of law and insisters upon absolute 
freedom of the individual are compelled to form organiza- 
tions, which imply more law, to preach their disintegrat- 
ing doctrines. The political economist who declaims 
against all forms of government, is compelled to form one 
and subject himself to personal limitations to publish his 
folly. To our mind, the attitude of that whole school, 



FOLLY OF FREEDOM SHBIEKERS. 85 

in view of the law of life, that of evolution, which was 
pointed out by Spencer himself, is simply preposterous. 
Theirs is the most insane cry of the age. Their howls for 
" freedom," for absence from governments, for getting rid 
of restrictions, when the very supposition of a highly or- 
ganized, differentiated structure also includes the idea of 
one highly integrated, and, as such, necessarily subject to 
a new set of limitations for every new element of differen- 
tiation which occurs in the structure, are not only baneful 
in the extreme, but so absolutely illogical as to be ridicu- 
lous. 



CONVERSATION ELEVENTH 

Querist, Have you any different notion of government 
from that usually entertained in free communities ? 

Positivist The peculiarity of our whole scheme of 
man's life on this planet is that we regard humanity as a 
whole, and reject the so-called sovereignty of the individ- 
ual. The individual, with us, is an abstraction — he does 
not exist, he is a mere cell in the entire organism. In St. 
Paul's noble language, we are simply "members of one 
body ; " this is a true biological statement of man's rela- 
tions to the race. We are not monads, self-existent ; we 
are what the past has made us. Scarcely an atom of which 
we are composed is exclusively our own ; the very lan- 
guage in which we declare our independence and insist on 
our individuality belies us, for it was invented for us by 
other people. The bees in the hive represent the Positiv- 
ist conception of government ; if it is necessary for the 
good of the hive that the drones should be killed, killed 
they must be ; they but live for the community, the com- 
munity does not exist for them. We wish to emphasize 



86 A POSITIYIST PRIMEPv. 

this statement as a corrective to the exaggerated individ- 
ualism preached by the present race of metaphysical phi- 
losophers, such, for instance, as Emerson and his Boston 
followers. These people are doing a great disservice to 
their kind in insisting upon the exaltation of the egoistic 
faculties at the expense of the social sympathies, thus keep- 
ing out of sight the dependence of each member of the 
community upon the whole body. Yet, as a matter of 
course, by the very biological law which recognizes that 
integration keeps pace with differentiation, we insist that 
it is in the completeness of the whole that the individual 
finds his completeness; in other words, that the perfection, 
for instance, of the human body w^ould be in the differen- 
tiation of every one of its parts. It is as absurd to exalt 
the individual above society, above government, or above 
humanity, as it would be to insist upon exaggerating the 
importance of the finger or toe above all the rest of the 
body; its true glory is in its entire subordination to the 
good of the whole, and the preachers of individualism are 
disseminators of anarchy and misrule, they are real ene- 
mies of the human race. 

Qrcerist, I notice that some of Herbert Spencer's dis- 
ciples in this country seem to believe that all visible facts 
and modes of the universe are but modifications of one 
central force. 

JPositivist. It is clear that our conceptions of matter or 
force are purely anthropomorphic ; that is, they are phe- 
nomena which we must express in terms of human con- 
sciousness. Spencer, I believe, says matter is the objective 
of what force is the subjective conception. Now, it may 
be useful for us to employ those terms in ojxlinary ji?a/"- 
lance^ but we should never forget that they are mere 
words, that these notions are purely human, and that 
when we talk of force we are simply gettii-g another 
name in the pUice of the old anthropom^orphic God. All 



FOECE, 3IATTERj A^D GOD. 87 

we know of matter or force is in the relations of each to 
human consciousness, that is, in the mental stimuli result- 
ting from the changes which occur in the world about us. 
We know of the correlation of forces, but we can know 
nothing of force in itself, or matter in itself; nor do we 
know that matter or force exists outside of human con- 
sciousness. Physicists who use these two terms are re- 
peating the old mistake of the Medieyal Realists, of con- .^ 
founding human conceptions with real existences. We 
can not know Force any more than we can know God, — 
the very term is a fio-ure of the imao-ination and of sneech. 

Querist. I notice that the Boston Radical Club and the 
Jfew England transcendentalists generally confine most 
of their debates to questions regarding God and immor- 
tality. Is there any yalue y/hateyer in discussions of this 
character ? 

Jpositivisf. We think not. We regard all discussions 
concerning the character and nature of a personal God as ,. 
being eyidences of the childishness of tbe race and of the "■ 
philosophy which professes to represent it. Your little 
boy or girl will ask you questions which no philosopher 
can answer. The child will ask you, " Who was God's 
father ? " and '^ where does God liye ? " The ingenuity of 
these little people in puzzling their parents has long been 
known and understood. Discussions respecting the Diyine 
Immanence, Pantheism, the nature of Deity,are all eyidences 
of the essential childishness of the intellects of their origi- 
nators and participants. The myth of Babel, the fable of 
men's attempt to scale heayen by building an immense 
toAyer, yery well exhibits the futility of men trying to 
knoy>' the unknowable. The old story of the Titans piling 
mountain upon mountain in order to reach the clouds con- 
yeys a lesson which the Boston Radical Club yrould do 
y\'eH to take to heart. As the child becomes older, he re- 
frains from troubling himself and his parents with attempts 



88 A POSITIVIST PRIMER. 

at solving Insolvable mysteries, and finding himself sur- 
rounded by a world where a great many things can be 
known, applies his mind to more fruitful studies. When 
science has done so much for man, and so much still re- 
mains to be done that can be accomplished, it is not only 
idle and childish, but it is positively wicked for philoso- 
phers and clergymen to be pottering and mumbling over 
these old dreams and illusions — questions which belong 
only to the infancy of the race, and about which men 
never have been, and never will be, able to arrive at any 
satisfactory result. There is not a phase of all the dispute 
respecting God or Immortality which has not been thought 
out by the Hindoo sages three thousand years ago. We 
are simply repeating in our modern discussions on these 
subjects the thoughts which the Hindoos had worked out 
hundreds of generations since. This introspective vision, 
this formulating of subjective conceptions, uncorrected 
by objective realities, has been going on ever since man 
emerged from the brute life, and the result is nil. It 
amounts to nothing. These studies, while undoubtedly 
of value as a species of mental gymnastics in times past, 
must be no longer tolerated. A healthy public opinion 
will sternly discountenance them. The man who bores 
you with discourse on the nature of the Godhead must be 
promptly given to understand that he is talking nonsense, 
that he is a big baby, and if he wishes to retain a status 
among men he must " put away childish things," that his 
effort is simply a waste of time and cerebral power. The 
philosophy of all modern schools, even the most conserv- 
ative, now reject as idle all ontological studies. 

Querist, How about the conception of evil and the 
devil? What solution has Positivism of the origin of 
evil? 

Positivist. The devil and the conception of evil are, like 
the conception of God, purely human or anthropomor- 



WHY ]N"OT A DEYIL ! 89 

pliitic. Modern science rejects the notion of a personal 
devil, or an entity known as evil. What we really know 
is that the human organism has a certain environment 
which sometimes injures it, — that we call evil. A stone 
bruises a man, a tree falls upon and crushes him, he tum- 
bles into the water and is drowned. In these cases the 
environment of antagonistic nature was too much for the 
organism and it has been injured, or perhaps it may be 
that the organism did not come into the world fully pre- 
pared to battle with its environment, and hence succumbs 
to its surroundino-s. J^ow, it was natural enouo;h that the 
savage man, seeing on every side things which injured 
him, should have, as was his wont, turned this environment 
of danger into a spirit, which he abstracted from the thing 
itself, and made it a fiend, a wrathful God, or devil of 
inimitably malific purpose, and this subjective, unreal con- 
ception has come down to our own day. Indeed, postu- 
lating a God who is perfect, almighty, a thoroughly good 
God, it is impossible to get rid of the kindred conception 
of a devil. If there is a good Deity in one case, there must 
be a bad one in the other, for how else would you account 
for diseases, wars, earthquakes, and all the multiplied 
forms of human misery, with your all-perfect and almighty 
God, without he becomes a devil at once if he permits 
these things ? Indeed, the whole conception of a pure, 
good Deity reigning over a world in which sentient beings 
suffer intolerable agonies, is monstrously illogical. The 
old theologians, who believed in both God and the Devil, 
were far wiser in their generation than the modern Deists 
and Unitarians, who accept the conception of a perfect 
and almighty God, yet reject the notion of a hurtful spirit 
of darkness, — because the latter would account for the im- 
perfection in the world as well as the other would account 
for the harmonies of the universe. The fact is, that neither 
conception is correct, that evil is a term which is as rela- 



90 A POSITIVIST PEIMEK. 

tive as good, that it relates to human organisms, or to. 
what is or is not hurtful to life, and which can be readily 
understood by a true scientific conception. Dirt is well 
.-^ said to be " matter out of plac-e.'' Soil scattered about a 
' dainty, costly house is a nuisance, but in a garden it nour- 
ishes beautiful flowers. The river-bottom, with its waste 
vegetable corruption, scatters disease and death among 
mankind, but it also helps to perfect in richest profusion 
the plants which furnish the food of the race. The waste 
of the manure heap is noisome to the neighborhood, but 
it is life to the cereal and the fruit. Evil may therefore 
be* said to be good misplaced or misunderstood. Put 
things in their proper relations to humanity and there is 
no evil. The doctrine of Evolution explains the imperfec- 
tion which meets us at every turn in life, and the lesson 
that it teaches us is, that we must rely, not upon a Divine, 
but upon a Human Providence to correct the ills of life, to 
get rid of that which is detrimental to humanity. There 
is no such thing as absolute evil per se. We are, it is true, 
surrounded by certain fatalities wliich we can not OA^er- 
come, — trouble, difficulties, prostrating heat, storms, earth- 
quakes, pestilences, barren lands; but man is getting con- 
trol, more and more, of the forces about him, and is 
becoming a real Providence to himself. There is no need 
of war. When children are well born, disease will, ere 
long, be in great measure got ]*id of, — the drainage of low 
lands drives away the poisonous malaria. In short, if the 
adjustment were properly made and maintained between 
the human organism and its environment, the former would 
have a happy life and a painless death ; and to accomplish 
this is the problem now before the race on this planet. 
Humanity, the God of this globe, must dominate over it, 
must make use of all its forces for the benefit of her chil- 
dren, and this is the aim of Positivism, — the destination 
of all science and all human ellbrt lor the good of man. 



FxiTE AKD FEEE-WILL. 91 

Querist Have yon any explanation of the old diiier- 
ences betv/een the notion of " fate " and the theory of 
" free-will ? " 

FositivisL Those also are mere words. As I have just 
said^ we are surrounded by and subject to certain fatalities. 
We can not live more than a certain number of years — by 
all that we can do w^e can not add an inch to our stature. 
If we jump out of a w^indow we wall break our neck or 
legs ; if Ave fall into the river we are in danger of being 
drowned. We are overshadow^ed in our material life b}^ 
certain tremendous fatalities which we can not get rid of. 
There are really unpardonable sins which w^e can commit 
against our organism. If we injure it so as to destroy its 
integrity, no praying or care afterward wdll be of any 
avail ; but in the complexity of the phenomena which con- 
trol our life there is a large measure of use of human 
activity and w^ill. We can adapt ourselves to the second- 
ary laws of human life. So far, free-will comes into play, 
—by obeyi^' x^ature, we conquer her. That is, by sub- 
mitting to the inevitable requirements of our environment, 
we can lead comparatively painless and, in a sense, happy 
lives, if the integrity of our individual organism has not 
been injured. The evolution of the race from a lower 
order of animals, the contest which man has had with the 
rude forces of nature about him, the great achievements 
manifested on every side, the results of his labor, enter- 
prise, energy, and knowledge, give a fair ground for a 
hope that, by a wise adaptation to his surroundings, man 
may perform wonders of w^hich he has now no conception. 
The whole earth mxay be regenerated, the race so improved 
as to realize all that is valuable in the fabled dreams of 
the life hereafter. 



92 A POSITIVIST PEIMEB. 



CONVERSATION TWELFTH. 

Querist, You do not, then, accept Comte unqualifiedly ? 

Positivist. In the work of every person there is an indi- 
vidual element which it is perfectly competent to eliminate 
without at all injuring the superstructure constructed by 
him. Such was, in my opinion, Comte's view as to the 
present limits of scientific inquiry. Any one may be a 
Positivist, and, as the phrase goes, a " complete " Positiv- 
ist, without accepting these limitations at all. 

Querist, Why, how is that ? 

Positivist, Well, simply in this way. Tlie limitations 
were dictated by what Comte called the good of Human- 
ity. Now, if it can be shown that the attainment of this 
object is furthered by the rejection of a single expedient 
thought to be necessary for that purpose, Comte himself 
would be the first to counsel its abandonment. The great 
thing to be kept in view constantly is the good of Human- 
ity. This is the unchangeable principle, and the means by 
which it is to be attained are always desiderata. 

Querist, Be a little more definite in your answer. 

Positivist, In his " Philosophic Positive,^' Comte himself 
has said that there was but one way to avert the disasters 
of the dispersiveness of our savans, caused by the very 
minute division of labor in the scientific domain. And 
this was by carrying it one step farther and making a 
great special class, whose duties it should be to study and 
co-ordinate the generalities discovered by others. Yon 
will remember that tliis is one of the Comtean principles 
accepted by Mr. Spencer, and it must be acknowledged 
that the world is indebted to him for endeavoring as far 
as possible to carry it out. Comte also at tlie same time 
divided the scientific domain into two great tracts, the 



SPECIAL VS. GEXEEAL STUDIES. 93 

one abstract and general, the other concrete and particu- 
lar; the foriner conversant with the great laws of phe- 
nomena, the hitter with their individual facts. The ab- 
stract sciences were in course of rapid construction, but 
the concrete sciences, on account of having to depend upon 
the combined laws of two or more of those sciences, were 
hardly more than foreseen. Contemplating the abstract 
and general more exclusively, and gaining a clearer con- 
ception of the overpowering utility of a great abstract 
science of Humanity, there can be no question that Comte 
in time hardly appreciated at their true value the concrete 
sciences, of whose construction he had spoken so hopefully 
in his earlier work, and in the *' Politique Positive " actu- 
ally condemned their study as being likely never to lead 
to any useful result. A very few considerations will make 
apparent that perhaps the scientihc specialists of the pres- 
ent day are in part right in pursuing these studies, and 
the founder of Positivism in part wrong in coimseling 
their abandonment. 

Querist. What are those considerations? 

Positivist. Humanly considered, the earth must always 
appear as it did to early man. the center of the universe. 
This center, of course, is not objective but stibjective — not 
physical, but hiunan. Xow, if we would modify this house 
of ours for the good of the race, we must know its physi- 
cal laws and their causes. Every one is aware that 
though om* atmosphere has been studied for unnumbered 
ages, we still have no proper science of meteorology. The 
real difficulty is that we do not know what part of the dis- 
turbances to trace to purely mundane causes and wliat 
part to astronomical causes. Late researches have shown 
that there is a positive connection between the number 
and area of sun '* spots '' and the intensity of terrestrial 
magnetism; and a magnetic slu^-wer has been acttially de- 
tected bv the instruments at Kew at the same time that 



94 A POSITIYIST PEIMEE. 

the holiograpli pictured a more than usually large number 
of dark spots on the face of the sun. Now, who is prepared 
to condemn this inquiry into the intimate constitution of the 
sun upon the score of the good of Humanity, if it can be 
shown that only by its means can a complete knowledge 
of our own earth be rendered possible ? But this is not all. 
The good of the race has been furthered by this inquiry 
in a direct manner. " Spectrum Analysis " is now, and 
will become still more so, one of the most potent modes of 
interrogating nature. In the Bessemer steel-making pro- 
cess it has been used to the saving of large sums, and the 
production of a finer article, and metals have been detected 
by it the presence of which may be of great future utility 
to the race. It is well known, too, that by the spectro- 
scope can be detected the presence of that burning envel- 
ope around the sun, the projecting flames of which some- 
times reach 80,000 and often 100,000 miles in height, and 
roll on Yfith an enormous rapidity. Fanciful as it may 
appear, no one is able yet to say that these flames — their 
altitude, velocity, chemical composition, etc. — ]iave not 
some marked effect upon the disturbances of our earth, 
which are known to us as storms or earthquakes. 

Querist, You think, then, that observation, not theory, 
should decide the question ? 

JPositivist. Precisely so. And not only as far as the sun 
is concerned, but the same rule should apply to the remote 
stars, vaguely known as the sidereal system. We can not 
yet tell but some of the nearest and largest " suns," for 
th(^y are such, exert an appreciable effect upon the center 
of our system, and through it upon its component mem- 
bers. Comte himself acknowledged that the only reason 
why the moderns abandoned theological and metaphysical 
systems was their confessed impotence and inutility. And 
though many have tried to go deeper as they call it, no 
better reason has yet been given. The same rule should 



SOME OF comte's limitatio^ts. 95 

and must apply to these studies. As yet their impotence 
has not been shown, and they give promise of great fruit- 
fulness. Consequently no conclusive reason yet exists for 
giving them up. 

Querist. Did not Conite include Geology in his con- 
demnation ? and what have you to say about it ? 

Positivist. Comte did include Geology in that condem- 
nation, and a slight extension of previous remarks vrill meet 
its case. The great doctrine of the continuity of organic 
species and man, upon which our great philosopher so 
much insisted, depends at least for its base upon the re- 
sults of Geology. Darwin's biological researches are the 
direct outcome of Lyell's geological discoveries and rea- 
sonings. Doubtless this science is still crude in its gener- 
alizations, but not by any means so much so as when 
Comte wrote. But this can never be alleged as a reason 
for the discontinuance of its study. We all know of what 
assistance it has been in mining, operations, and when the 
new views upon what ma^^ be called the Economy of the 
planet, derived from solar sources, come to be applied and 
generalized, there is no telling how important its empiri- 
cal results may become. Even now it is evident to every 
thinking person that a current of electricity or terrestrial 
magnetism must be changed in direction or perhaps modi- 
fied in intensity according to the direction and composi- 
tion of the strata of rocks traversed by it. There can be 
no doubt that wdth further study, more such uses of knowl- 
edge, which appears at first sight to be useless, will come 
to light. 

Querist. Still another point should have a little light 
thrown upon it. How do you reconcile this teaching with 
Comte's own laments over the elite of the race wasting 
their time in these vain studies, when they might be con- 
tributing their part to the immediate solution of tlie social 
problem? 



96 A POSITIVIST PEIMER. 

Positivist Certainly the solution of the social problem 
or problems, for there are many of them, is the greatest 
necessity of our time, and we are all anxious for its attain- 
ment, and all look in the same direction as did Comte for 
this solution. But it is not by any means clear (l) that 
these efforts are not contributing toward this wished-for 
consummation ; or (2) that the men who are laboring in 
these walks would be fitted for the appropriate solution of 
purely sociological questions. Reasons have been previ- 
ously given for thinking that these efforts, dispersive as 
they must be acknowledged to be, are really useful, and 
that they will at no distant day be productive of , great 
and permanent good to the race. The second point is one 
upon which there is a great deal of misconception, and 
upon which, therefore, a little elaboration may not be 
thrown away. It is one of the evils of the day that em- 
ployments are " chosen " — if it is not a bull to use that 
word — haphazard. There is no mode of finding out what 
a man is fitted for except "trial and failure," and thus 
often the best years of life are wasted in vain endeavors 
to do the impossible. This scene is enacted before all of us 
many times during our lives, and leaves not a doubt that 
the mental as well as the physical constitution of each in- 
dividual is specially fitted for some one work, and that 
there are limitations on all sides, even to the greatest 
genius. For instance, it is not by an}^ means certain that 
Sir Isaac Newton, great as he was in his own line, and fun- 
damentally similar as are all the parts of scientific method, 
could have become a great social philosopher, even if pub- 
lic opinion, family influence, or what is vaguely called ac- 
cident, had compelled him to follow that line. Taking a 
great philosoph(?r of the present day, —Mr. Spencer, — and 
there is no reason for thinking that he could ever have 
become as great, relatively, as a mathematician, or, indeed, 
as a specialist of any kind, as he has as a co-ordinator of 



SELECTION OF TEACHEKS. 97 

generalities. But the point is too clear to need further 
elucidation. It may be asserted, generally, that few of 
those scientists who are now pursuing those studies which 
are in dispute would contribute anything to the immediate 
removal of the social dimculties, even if all of them were 
laboring in its domain. 

Querist You then propose to allow individual prefer- 
ence to decide the matter? 

Positivist, We have to do so yet, but it is individual 
preference controlled by a sense of the permanent good 
of the race, and it is to be hoped that the Positive system 
of instruction will point out a better mode of selecting our 
teachers. There is another point not to be overlooked 
with regard to sociological inquiries and inquirers. The 
latter are not by any means so few as is sometimes 
thought. Very many have reflected long and seriously 
upon the subject, and one great point gained is, that there 
appears to be a convergence in their results which was 
entirely wanting a few years ago. This convergence, it 
must be acknowledged, is the result of the Positive mode 
of inquiry which is in the air, and not of any copying, to 
any extent at least, from the great inquirers vrho have pre- 
ceded them. These desultory remarks show that Positiv- 
ists are not opposed to the extension of the scientific do- 
main, and that they are not, as some are anxious to make 
the world believe, bound to accept every view put forth 
in the fundamental V\'orks of their founder. He himself 
asserted, and every commentator whose words have been 
accepted by Positivists have in turn asserted, that all his 
views were " relative," and therefore subject to revision 
and to rejection if found not to be well founded philos- 
ophically or for the good of the race morally. 

Querist. By what means do you Positivists expect to 
bring about the changes in society wh^ch you deem desu'- 
able? 

5 



98 A POSITIVIST PPJMER. 

1^ Positivist. We reject all force in dealing with social 
problems. We do not believe in war or in governmental 
interference to bring about any reform destined to be of 
lasting benefit to the community. We object to the sol- 
dier and the policeman. We believe in using moral agen- 
cies, and deem that no scheme of reform is of any value 
which is not based upon the changed convictions of the 
community. Hence, what we aim at is a change in the 
opinions of the people, and this can not be effected by bay- 
onets or clubs, or by arbitrary laws in advance of the 
times. Agitation, to be productive, must be moral. 

Querist. But surely some measures must be taken to 
bring about this change, which you so much desire, in 
public sentiment ? 

Positivist. Yes. We rely primarily upon education. 
Long and tedious years must necessarily elapse before any 
great change in public opinion can be effected ; but our 
system will not have, can not have, fair play until our 
ideal of education is fully carried out. Indeed, all the 
problems of the day are secondary — subordinate — to this 
great one of the right education of the whole community. 
The labor question, — the woman question, — the govern- 
mental question, — all must wait for their final solution 
until the minds of the great mass of the community are 
scientifically trained. We hold that every individual 
born into the world should be given the very best educa- 
tion that it is in the power of society to bestow. There 
must be no exceptions to this rule. Ignorance must be 
absolutely banished, to secure the highest good of the 
(community. The child of the scavenger is as much en- 
titled to a fair start in the race of life, with tlie full com- 
mand of all his physical and mental faculties, as is the 
offspring of the millionaire, — nor do we admit of any 
distinction orf sex.^ We say that the girl, as well as the 
boy, should have all the advantages of education; and 



EDUCATIOIS" THE RIGHT OF ALL. 99 

we are wholly opposed to all public or private money 
appropriations for the training of special classes at the 
expense of the rest of the community. There is no justi- 
fication for giving the exceptionally clever any additional 
advantages' over the rest of the community. The prizes 
we are now holding out to those already blessed with a 
more perfect organization and fortunate condition than 
their fellows is singularly unfair. The Democratic con- 
ception of education is the true one, that of the absolute 
equal right of every child born to the best education the 
state or community can afford. 

Querist, Do you then advocate governmental interfer- 
ence in education ? 

Fositwist; 1^0, Theoretically we are opposed to all 
state education, yet, as we incline to be practical in all 
things, we can not overlook the fact that education is 
more advanced in those communities where the state in- 
sists upon imparting the rudiments of knowledge to its 
children than among those nations where the state neg- 
lects all aid to educational enterprise. It is enough to 
compare Germany with the rest of Europe, to show the 
immense advantage of a wise governmental education of 
the people above the pernicious neglect of all education. 
Still, the ideal education — that which we advocate — is 
where it is administered to all, not by state officials and 
for governmental purposes, but by the scientific body. 
Under our regime the education of the child would be 
divided between tlie mother and the scientist or priest. 
There would be no juvenile — or so-called Primary — schools 
in a Positivist community. The mother would have the 
charge of her children until they were fourteen years of 
age, when the girl or lad would be handed over to the 
care of the scientific instructor. Nor would education 
mean with us the so-called " three R's " — " readin', 'ritin', 
and 'rithmetic ; " but in early life it would be mainly 



100 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

artistic, and tending to the chastening of the emotions 
and ennobling of the ideas. This conception is, however, 
impossible of realization so long as the mothers of the 
race remain so grossly ignorant, as even the best educated 
of them now are. 

Querist. Are not the many colleges and miiversities in 
the land rapidly correcting that eyil in this country at 
least? 

Positivist. While we regard the formation of male and 
female universities as probably inevitable for some time to 
come, we deplore their existence, and hope the time will 
come when there will be no need of them ; for the educa- 
tion which is now imparted to the few, would, under our 
administration, be freely given to all. At present, we are 
compelled to look upon them as a necessity, a mere pre- 
paratory step toward the realization of a more perfect 
future. 

Querist. "What relation, under the Positivist regime^ 
would religion bear to education ? 

Positivist. We insist upon religion as the most import- 
ant part of the educational scheme, but we would confine 
our religious teaching to the inculcation and enforcement 
upon the child of the virtues which all religions recognize 
and honor, and at the same time keep clear of all sectarian 
bias or superstition of creed. The child would be taught 
truthfulness, courtesy, honor, — its emotional fervor would 
be trained under proper restraints, its artistic instincts 
given free play. In short, we would aim to make the 
child a noble human being, with all its better nature devel- 
oped along with all its mental capacities. This, we say, 
would be true religious teaching. The dogmas and the 
creeds are all so much mere i-ubbish. When the question 
of religions versus secular education aguin comes to the 
surface, it will be the aim of the Positivists to reconcile 
the theologians to the secularists by this compromise, that 



GIFTS FOE HUMAIN-ITY. 101 

the virtues which a true religious culture should inculcate 
shall be given to the children, — to which the secularists 
could not very well object, while at the same time the dry- 
husks of creed would not be pressed upon the child in its 
school. Nothing can be more dreadful than the concep- 
tion of education prevailing in our public schools, the 
mere teaching of letters, arithmetic, and grammar to the 
child. What makes the child a noble man or woman ? 
It is not the little information you pump into it, but the 
graces, courtesies, artistic instincts, and the restraints of 
appetite which it is taught in early life. These, only, are 
of value in education to fit the child for the highest and 
worthiest human uses. Here I would remark, that in the 
growing conception of the social uses of wealth, it is first 
recognized in the direction of education, and hence our 
rich men who feel the divinely human impulse to bestow 
or 'rather to give back their wealth to the community, do 
so in the form of educational trusts in a majority of in- 
stances. Very many of these bequests are wasted in in- 
culcating the discredited and illusory theology of the day, 
but the impulse of the givers is, nevertheless, a noble one. 
Mr. Peter Cooper has fully recognized the Positivist ideal 
of education in devotino; his wealth to the trainino; of the 
young in science and art, a course of conduct which does 
him infinite honor. The Yassar College, the Simmons' be- 
quest; the Shefiield School at Yale, — all these show in 
what direction tends the current of thouo;ht amono; the rich 
men who feel this new inspiration of humanity. It is the 
artistic and scientific training of the young which is, in real- 
ity the first great step toward the regeneration of modern 
society. 



103 A POSITIVIST PBIMEK. 



CONVEESATION THIRTEENTH. 

Qiferist. How do you regard domestic service? Is 
there any necessary degradation in it? and can the work 
of the world be carried on without a class set apart to do 
the hard and often repulsive labor of the household ? 

JPositivisL Our religion sanctifies all labor done for 
Humanity or any of her individual organs. Christianity 
not being a secular religion as Positivism is, it signally 
fails in dealing with questions like this of domestic service. 
The servant is theoretically held to have an immortal soul, 
liable to suffer eternal torments, yet the whole domestic 
polity of Christian households is calculated to prepare the 
" help " for the hell the " master " professes to befeve in. 
All the repulsive work must be done by the servants ; they 
are not allowed companionship ; their hours of toil are ex- 
cessive ; culture is denied them ; they are in the home, but 
not of it. The Christian myth of the curse on labor de- 
grades workers of all kinds, but more especially the do- 
mestics. The slang terms applied to them, " potwollop- 
pers," " slewers," " kitchen wenches," and the like, tell 
the story of their degradation in the popular estimation. 
Now, Positivism honors all labor if its object is to carry 
on the work of the race, or in any way serve Humanity. 
It is the idler, the do-nothing, the loafer whom we hold in 
contempt. The motto of the Prince of Wales, "Ich 
Dien" (I serve), is a noble one. The servant with us is a 
necessary and honored member of tlie family. He or she 
does not work for us for wages, b\it for love of the service 
and of us. Our obligation is not closed with the payment 
of the compensation agreed upon ; we owe, in addition, to 
those who have served us faithfully, consideration, care, 
kindness, and love. Why is it the American girl instinct- 



DOMESTIC SERVICE. 103 

ively avoids honsehold service ? Only because of the pop- 
ular clisesteem in which it is held. They are not to be 
blamed ; the difficulty is in a public opinion based upon 
the current Christian belief in tli€ curse on labor. The 
liberal school, so-called, can apply no corrective, for it has 
no polity to adjust human relations any more than its or- 
thodox opponent ; but Positivism, with its noble human 
ideals, its scientific morality, its devotion to Humanity, 
and its care of the personal needs of the race, is the only 
system vv^hich has a real solution of the question of domes- 
tic service. Queens and idngs in times past had nobles for 
their ladies and o-entlemen of the bedchamber. Let us re- . 
verse the process, and make our body-servants nobles, by ^ 
recognizing the fact that it is worthier to serve than to be 
served, to confer obligations than to accept them. 

Querist. A word about government. You seem to re- 
sent governmental interference, and yet, if I understand 
you, you believe in authority, in certain persons having con- 
trol over the rest of the community ? Please explain ? 

JPosifivist. We believe in a government of the people, 
and for the people, but not bi/ the people. We believe 
that authority must b.e lodged in individual organisms ; 
hence, that some one must have the g^eneral care of the 
community, and that that some one can no more be elect- 
ed by -a majority vote than can the general of an army be 
elected by the privates, or the pilot by the passengers of a 
vessel. Those who wield authority must be selected, and 
not elected. One of our co-religionists, during the excite- 
ment of the Paris Commune, issued a book in which ap- 
peared, as the motto at the head of one of the chapters, a 
sentence to this effect, " We must have a new Atheism to •«► 
get rid of the god Majority." Is^ow, what he meant, 
and what we all mean, is that government by counting 
noses is to us a preposterous govermnent. It may be in- 
evitable at a certain stage of human progress, but we in- 



104 A POSITIYIST PEIMEE. 

sist that the government of the future will be that of 
selection instead of that of election. We already see evi- 
dences of this in the demand in this country for the filling 
of offices by competitive examination and for life. The 
civil service reform, so-called, is the entering wedge for a 
new system of government, or rather one which has ob- 
tained in China for thousands of years. It is a curious 
circumstance that our modern discussions regarding gov- 
ernment, finance, banking, etc., are simply reproductions 
of what the Chinese went through probably five or six 
thousand years ago. Even the whole paper money ques- 
tion was settled by the Chinese, as far as it could be set- 
tled, when our forefathers were savages drinking wine or 
mead out of the skulls of their enemies. This demand, all 
over the civilized w^orld, for a civil service- reform, for the 
appointment of minor officials after a competitive examin- 
ation as to their qualifications, is simply a repetition of 
what was true of China many thousand years ago. The 
backward state of knowledge in that remarkable country 
of course has interfered with the development of the full 
value of this system of government, for that is what it 
really amounts to. After w^e have secured competency 
and efficiency in the minor offices, in the Custom House 
and the Post Office, and in the clerical departments, it 
will be regarded as intolerable that we should be ruled by 
the ignorant and corrupt babblers who now form the great 
majority of our legislative bodies. We are beginning to 
make education, character, and efficiency tests for all the 
clerical appointments under our government, and these 
same tests must, in time, be applied to all the higher de- 
partments as well. Most of the people have no compre- 
hension of the far-reaching consequences of this agitation 
for civil service reform. It is not confined to this country 
alone. We are far behind the English, as they are behind 
the Germans and the French, in the application of this con- 



THE PARIS COMMUTE. 105 

ception of the business of government. This is the first 
step toward the Positivist conception of government. We 
do not believe in universal suffrage. We insist that lead- 
ers must be selected for their fitness, and that while the 
popular voice may sometimes be quite correct in calling 
for a certain chief, he as often must be self-elected, and 
still more often chosen by somebody who acts in the in- 
terests of the people, but who does not represent their pas- 
sions and prejudices. 

Querist. How do you regard the late Paris Commune ? 
Have you any sympathy with its aims or methods ? 

Positivist, A very great deal of sympathy with its 
aims, — for its methods, nothing but condemnation. We 
do not believe in insurrection, — in the application of force 
to accomplish peaceful ends. The aim of the Parisian 
Communists was noble. It was foreseen by Auguste 
Comte. He predicted that the time would come when 
France would be ruled by a committee of w^orkingmen. 
He inferred that the Column Vendome, — that insult to all 
Europe, — would be totn dov/n and the ashes of Bonaparte 
removed from France. He also foretold tl:u^t hi time 
France would be divided into seventeen confederated re- 
publics. A very marked point in his philosophical proph- 
ecies can be quoted, in which he plainly stated that the 
anarchy of our times would yet bring about serious con- 
flicts between the cities and the rural districts. All this 
has come to pass in our own time. Had Jeremiah or 
Habbakuk, or any of the old Jewish prophets, come with- 
in a hundred miles of as near to the truth in their predic- 
tions as Auguste Comte has done in this generation, the 
religious press of the day would be filled with arguments 
to prove the divine character of their utterances. The 
methods of the Communists were a natural outgrowth of 
the disorganizing theories so current in our time. They 
rejected all authority, and there is nothing more marked 
. 5* 



106 A POSITIYIST PRIMEE. 

in the destructive movement of modern times than the 
aversion felt for any human leadership. The first French 
Revohition had leaders. This last one had, practically, no 
centers of power. They changed even their generals day 
after. day, — their civil officers still oftener. From such a 
body, so devoid of order or organization, no intelligent 
action is possible. Indeed, all faith in individuals seems 
to have died out of modern life. There is no body of 
men which commands unhesitating respect and confidence, 
without it be the scientific. What it utters is all that is 
respected. Upon the scientists devolves the duty, there- 
fore, of the reorganization of society. The triumph of 
the Commune would have been disorganization, — chaos 
come again. We must have, in a good government, re- 
spect for human authority, — we must have leaders. We 
can not succeed in changing the face of society without 
our chiefs. In so far as the Commune attempted to free 
France from the curse of excessive centralization, to give 
a new life to the cities so that they would not be borne 
down by the ignorant rural voters, and so far as it brought 
the social qfuestion to the front, it had the sympathy of all 
Positivists. Its rejection of authority, its taking of arras, 
its warlike procedures, are all adverse to the spirit of 
true progress, and we do not care to commend them ; but 
the spirit which animated the pulling down of the Column 
Vendome meets our heartiest approbation. The Com- 
mune, in itself,- was a part of the so-called "Socialistic 
Co-operative Movement " which Positivism entirely rejects. 

Querist, IIow about disease? Has Positivism a cure 
for the individual person as well as for the body politic ? 

Positlvist. John Stuart Mill criticised Comte sharply 
for declaring that disease w^as a departure from Unity, but 
that conception has now become a commonplace among 
medical experts. Disease is not an entity. There are no 
specifics. Therapeutics is not a science. Health is a state 



HEALTH AXD DISEASE. 107 

in which all the functions of the body act normally. It is 
the perfect relation between the organism and its environ- 
ment. Disease is when the human body is put out of this 
proper relation to its surroundings. It is a departure from 
Unity, in other words. This is already confessed to be 
the case by the most eminent physicians. Medical science 
has made extraordinary progress in the understanding of 
disease. The knowledge of morbid conditions acquired by 
modern investigators is truly wonderful, — but, at the same 
time, the science of cure (so-called, for there is no reality in 
so saying) has stood still. Vie are no nearer a knowledge 
of absolutely correct and unfailing methods in the case of 
disease than were the Greeks in the time of Hippokrates. 
Improved sanitary conditions, personal and public hygiene, 
are subjects in which we have made real progress. We 
have simply to conform, as far as possible, to the condi- 
tions of life, to avoid disease ; but we may as well recog- 
nize, first as last, that there is no certain .virtue in medi- 
cine. Doctors are generally jDretenders, and the first step 
toward a comfortable life is in o^ettino- rid of that old 

•o o 

fetish of curative medical science. Xobody is cured; 
restored is the right word to mark the change from illness 
to health. One may conform to the laws of life and health 
and shun disease, in great measure at least ; but even that 
is not possible to the individual alone. He must be aided 
by the co-operation of the community, by a well-organ- 
ized form of government for the public good. A man can 
not, for instance, save himself from being a drunkard with- 
out he has the help of society in protecting him against 
the tyranny of his appetites, by aiding him in controlling 
his passions and tastes. 

Querist. Are there any indications of the spread of 
Positivism outside the school with which you act ? 

Positivist. The air is full of it. It crops out in the most 
unexpected quarters. We see it in the scieytific move- 



108 A POSITIVIST PRIMEE. 

ments of the age — in the educational tendencies of the 
times — in the applications of art to use instead of orna- 
ment — in the growing conception of the valuelessness of 
everything which does not tend to help Humanity — in the 
dying out of the old faiths — in the education of legislators 
and public opinion with respect to questions of hygiene and 
other regulations for the public good ; especially in the 
literature of the day are exhibited marked Positivist ten- 
dencies. In past times the historians told us of the deeds 
of the gods, and poets celebrated the victories of the god- 
men ; later, history was devoted to recording the deeds of 
men in past times. Recent history has done a great deal 
toward rehabilitating the characters of men whom former 
historians had described as infamous ; but it was a great 
step forward when history dealt with the affairs of men 
instead of the doings of fetishes and lesser gods, — v/hen it 
became secular instead of theological. The most hopeful 
tendencies observable in the present time are the books 
which treat of the future. It is very remarkable that in 
the last few years a literature has sprung up anticipating 
the future. ^^'The Battle of Dorking," "The Coming 
Race," the articles in our magazines and newspapers touch- 
ing the coming man and woman, are all evidences that the 
higher order of literary men are beginning to understand 
that society is not ruled by an absolute will or an infinite 
caprice, but that there are certain tendencies in humanity, 
certain controlling laws w^hich can be traced out and by 
which we can anticipate the future. The test of all sci- 
ence is prevision, — the certainty of a true sociology is 
when we can foretell what is to take place hereafter. 
Writers are beginning to do it now, partly as if it were a 
joke, but it will not be many years before they will do it 
in real earnest. A wise Human Providence will enable us 
to anticipate our needs, and to provide fully for the wants 
and contincyencies of the future. 



INTEK]N-ATIOXAL POLITY. " 109 

Querist Has Positivism any international polity ? has 
xt any rule between nations, any way of lifting up savage 
races ? 

PosUivist. Our theory recognizes the relativity of all 
human institutions. We hold that any current belief or 
faith must have some relation to existing human needs. 
Hence we say that the Fetichist has a religion suited to 
his wants, and that all efibrts to rid the savage of his na- 
tive beliefs, and impose upon him the intellectual or relig- 
ious convictions of the higher races, are unphilosophical, 
unnatural, and can not but prove in the end pernicious. 
The Positivist, therefore, discountenances the missionary 
efforts of the Catholic and Protestant churches. When 
we organize missions we vfill recognize the validity of the 
faiths of these inferior races, and will not try to naturalize 
the conceptions of an advanced civilization among savage 
or semi-civilized peoples. Nothing but mischief has re- 
sulted from this attempt to impose faiths alien to them 
upon these backward nations. What naturally shocks 
the savage or semi-civilized tribe or nation is the want of 
' any human morality on the part of their Christian con- 
querors. So far, the conduct of the civilized nations 
toward the barbarous has been simply inhuman. Force 
has been used to extend commerce, and the vices of the 
civilized nations have helped to d.estroy the population 
and embitter the lives of the inferior races which have 
passed under the rule of European governments. Posi- 
tivist morality sternly condemns the crimes of Christen- 
dom. It insists that th'e Christianity which has no human 
polity, which has never raised its voice against the crimes 
committed by the civilized world upon these poor savages, 
has no right to attempt to convert them to a series of 
intellectual conceptions for which they they are unfitted, 
and which do them no good in this world. You perceive 
from this that in everything Positivism rejects all concep- 



110 A POSITIYIST PEIMER. 

tions of the absolute; there is no absolute right or abso- 
lute wrong; everything is relative to humanity. The 
man at the antipodes has a different notion of up and 
down from what I have ; my up is his down, and vice 
versa. The observer stationed half way between us sees 
an horizon where I see a zenith. We are all relatively 
right ; but were the man at the antipodes to say that his 
up was an absolute up, and his down an absolute down, 
he would make the same mistake that the Christian minis- 
ter makes in trying to impose his conceptions of right and 
wrong upon a people who reverse them naturally. While 
Positivism preaches the very highest form of monogamy 
ever propounded, it recognizes that in the march toward 
civilization polyandry and polygamy are necessary steps 
in social progress, and would do no violence to institu- 
tions sanctioned by time and custom. Our motto of 
" Live for others " is of universal application ; and when 
generally recognized, not only will it teach a higher indi- 
vidual morality than any yet known, but it will entirely 
reconstruct the relations of nations by teaching them, not 
first to consider their own wants, but the needs of those 
with whom they come in contact. When this is done, 
there will be no more wars, nor those scandals of our 
civilization, conflicts to force opium uj)on an unwilling 
people, or to drive trade into communities where it only 
produces disturbances and misery. All these things will 
be rectified when a scientific morality replaces the imper- 
fect theological and metaphysical morals which now ob- 
tain credence among men. 

Querist. What is the present position of Positivism 
throughout the world ? What prospect is there of a rec- 
ognition of the religion of Humanity ? 

PositivisL On this subject we have no illusions. It 
will be many years before Positivism, as a religion, re- 
ceives its due recognition; we see it, however, asserting 



PEOMIXEXT POSITIVISTS. Ill 

itself in unexpected quarters ; it is spontaneous in our mod- 
ern civilization. As yet, the numbers who adhere to what 
may be called the extreme statement of the faith, are very 
few; I doubt if there are two hundred persons in the 
whole world who could honestly say they accepted all of 
Comte's teachings on this subject; but outside of that two 
hundred are tens of thousands wdio are, to a greater or 
less extent, adherents, and outside of those thousands are 
hundreds of thousands who accept the philosophy while 
rejecting the religion, because not yet understanding it. 
In our view, those w^ho accept the Positive Philosophy, or 
who take any part whatever in the scientific movement of 
the age, are upon the road to complete Positivism ; it is 
simply a question of time. The head of our church is 
M. Pierre Lafitte, in Paris ; he is a poor man and lives by 
his labor. Dr. Robinet, the biographer of August e Comte, 
is another noted Positivist in Paris ; this gentleman also 
lives in lodgings and voluntarily keeps himself poor ; he is 
a physician of note, but will take no fee from the poor and 
charges only sixty cents a visit to the rich ; he devotes 
himself to Humanity, and will have his reward. Our head 
in England is Dr. Richard Congreve, now, I grieve to say, 
in ill-health. He is a graduate of Oxford, was a tutor in 
that institution, and is the author of many works on Pos- 
itivism. Professor Beesly, of the London University, is 
another well-known Positivist, as is also Dr. J. H. Bridges, 
of Sheffield, who is the translator of several of Comte's 
works. Mr. Frederic Harrison is well known as one of 
our most prominent leaders in England. These gentlemen 
are all voluntarily poor. Mr. Harrison, who is a lawyer 
of good standing, lost two of the best years of his life in 
sitting upon a Parliamentary Commission to inquire into 
the working of Trades Unions in England, and has the 
credit of having been able to change the Commission from 
its avowed object of producing testimony to crush out the 



112 A POSITIVIST PEIMEE. 

trades unions into a statement whereby they have become 
legalized institutions of Great Britain. Workingmen of a 
future generation will canonize Frederic Harrison for what 
he has done for the laboring class of England. Dr. 
Bridges is a physician, but declines to accept fees for his 
services. Professor Beesly also works gratuitously. Pos- 
itivism, however, has its adherents all over the globe. 
We ask of those who accept the faith only the payment 
of a small fee regularly, which forms part of a sacerdotal 
fund, and is transmitted to Paris. 



CONVERSATION FOURTEENTH. 

. Qicei'ist, As it appears that we have now come pretty 
nearly to the end of our conversation, are you satisfied 
that you have given as full and clear a statement of the 
views of the Positivists as the public would have a right 
to expect ? 

Positivist ]^o; not by any means. Far from being 
comprehended within the limits of a small book, the sub- 
stance of Positivism, in its effective and rightful illustra- 
tion, would require at least a hundred volumes, since it 
involves all science, history, philosophy, and religion. 
Every domain of human thought and activity comes under 
the sway of Positivism. Hence, such conversations as we 
have had are merely intended to meet the case of those 
who, having heard of Positivism, are anxious to obtain 
some further knowledge of the leading features of the sys- 
tem. We hope that from the views here presented they 
may be induced to pursue the study still further. Satis- 
fied as we are of the excellence of the Positivist philoso- 
phy, in its application to all the concerns either of society 



POSITIVISM liS^ BRIEF. 113 

or the individual, we can only hope that the views now 
set forth, inadequate though they may be, will act as a 
stimulus to curiosity, and induce the public to become 
better acquainted with it. 

Querist. You have nothing, then, corresponding to the 
Apostles' Creed, — no brief abstract or statement of Posi- 
tivism that would enable the inquirer to seize at a glance 
the salient points of the Positivist philosophy and religion ? 
Positivist. Is^o. As yet no one has attempted to make 
any such brief condensation of our views. We must be 
careful not to mislead ; hence any statement of that kind 
would probably oblige us to set forth what we do not^ as 
well as what we do^ believe. Besides, these concise state- 
ments sometimes obtain very different interpretations from 
different orders of minds, as the raging controversies with 
which ecclesiastical annals are bestrewn abundantly prove. 
Such a statement in our case might lead to grave misap- 
prehension, and excite annoying prejudice. For instance, 
if we were to declare that we do not believe in a personal 
God, or in Immortality, we should certainly create a false 
impression in regard to the tendency of the Positivist 
religion. We do believe in a Supreme Being, — as we say, 
the only Supreme Being. We do believe in an Immor- 
tality. And yet we can understand that our explanation 
of these tenets would, to some people, seem like non-belief 
in either. Let me try in a few words to state the leading 
principles of the Religion and Polity of Positivism. First, 
then, we believe in Humanity as the only Supreme Being 
that man can possibly know. We believe that there is a 
real Immortality for man, both objective and subjective ; 
but no conscious life hereafter, so far as our faculties go. 
We believe that all service, love, and worship should be 
paid to this Supreme Being discovered, as we say, by sci- 
ence. This involves the worship of hum.an excellence as 
embodied in human forms. The man ought to worship 



114 A POSITIVIST PEIMER. 

the woman as mother, wife, and daughter. The woman 
ought to worship the man as the true human Providence. 
This devotion of all our energies and activities to the ex- 
altation of Humanity gives a new standpoint for the treat- 
ment of the Woman question and the Labor question. We 
teach the moralization of Wealth, — in other words, that all 
the products of past and present labor should be devoted 
to Humanity, and not to individual luxury or aggrandize- 
ment. This moral conception will, we believe, effect more 
for the benefit of the human race than all the socialistic 
or Communistic theories which are so rife in our time; 
herein, we believe, is the true solution of all those difficul- 
ties which beset the relations of Capital and Labor. While 
exalting Woman, and worshiping her as the type of all 
that is sweetest and purest and noblest in Humanity, we 
say that she must give way to man in all the practical de- 
tails of life ; that men are the workers and the providers, 
and that they must take care of the women, not permit- 
ting them to work, but giving them charge of the esthetic, 
domestic, and moral concerns of the race. Positivism does 
not recognize the rights of women at all, — nor, in fact, the 
rights of men either. The only right a human being can 
have is the right to do his or her duty. We substitute 
duty in every case for right. Listead of self-assertion we 
prescribe self-abnegation. That is an idea of morality 
which has been recognized in all ages ; and the researches 
of modern physicists prove the conception to be truly 
scientific. 

Querist, What works would it be well to consult in 
order to learn further particulars of Positivism ? 

Positivist, The fact that Positivism involves the whole 
scientific movement of the age, will convince you that it is 
extremely difficult to recommend any wyrk, or indeed 
any one class of works, as embodying the principles of 
Positivism. The writings of John Stuart Mill, however, 



WORKS TO CONSULT. 115 

as well as those of G. H. Lewes, Professors Huxley and 
Tynclall, Charles Darwin, Professors Tylor and Haeckel, 
and the works of Herbert Spencer, are all more or less 
imbued with the spirit of Positivism, and are exponents 
of the Positivist religion and philosophy. These writers 
are not all of them avowed Positivists; but they teach 
the thing, though they deny, the name. For informa- 
tion in regard to the works of Auguste Comte there is the 
translation by Harriet Martineau of the '* Course of Posi- 
tive Philosophy." There is also a translation by Dr. J. H. 
Bridges of the first volume of the Politique Positwe^ enti- 
tled a " General View of Positivism." There is also an 
English translation of the " Catechism of the Religion of 
Humanity," done by Dr. Richard Congreve. Other works 
on the same subject will be announced in the catalogue of 
the firm that publishes this little work. 



APPENDIX 



POSITIVISM. 



The following address was delivered before the INew York Lib- 
eral Club, the 5th Shakespeare 83 (14th September, 1871), by Henry 
EvAiTS, Secretary of the New York Positi^st Society : 

Ladies and Gentlemen — I am told to speak to you on Positiv- 
ism, and to do it in ten minutes ! The only outline of Positivism 
extant fills a dozen volumes ; to take them all at once condensed 
even as far as possible would be like going " across the continent " 
b}^ lightning ; no amount of holding breath or shutting eyes would 
render it safe for you or me. 

I will venture a few words about the purpose, scope, and need 
of this new " ^6'm," hoping to seriously turn your attention to it. 

The first thing that strikes you on looking at it is, that it is an 
entire change of base. The old cargoes of Theology and Metaphys- 
ics must be thrown overboard, and the decks thoroughly washed. 

There is no use studying Positivism with a head full of Gods, 
Spirits, Spiritualism, Entities, Principles, Types, Nature and her 
works, designs, purposes, ends, intuitions, longings, and the thou- 
sand-and-one heaps of rubbish that are drifting into unhinged heads 
from the disintegration of the Gods and Theologies. The first 
thing, in other words, is to empty your pitcher before you present 
it again to be filled at the fountain of Truth. Most of the students 
of Positivism fail from this cause alone. It can not be held half 
and half Why not? Because it is an integral doctrine, a com- 
plete synthesis, and therefore a complete solution of the World, of 
Man, his Duty and Destin}^ This, in short, is its purpose. There 
is no room for another " ism," and it can not be got into a head 
until other " isms" and " ologies" are out, or getting out. Positiv- 
ism is always accepted just in proportion as it is understood. 

Now, as to its scope, it is the grandest picture ever laid before 
the eye or mind of man. To think — to act — to feel. These are 
the grand divisions of man considered individually or collectively, 
as one man, or the Eace. Out of feeling comes thinking, — out of 
thinking conies acting, and we act to effect the objects for which 
we feel. A¥e must have, then, a worship or culture of the emotions 
in order to nourish and sustain noble and useful thoughts to the 
attainment of noble and useful ends of life. The Positive Philoso- 
phy is a philosoph}^ " with a purpose." That purpose is the high- 
est good of tlie race as a whole, and not of any one man, not even 
the very important man who may be studying it. But is not this 
an objection '? What business has the phifosopher with a purpose ? 



118 APPEIS^DIX. 

Is not his sole object Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the 
Truth, wheresoever it leads? Yes; but "what is Truth?" The 
whole Truth, can man know it all ? The truth that man can know 
is only the knowledge of the relations that tilings bear to himself, 
and he to them. It is ail relative to man. As the man ^s, so will 
]iis truth be. His inquiries alwa^ys have a motive, an emotion^ that 
prompts and sustains them, and this determines what he learns, 
discovers, and invents. Truth is thus : 1st. As to its origin, it is the 
acquired and inherited perceptions of mankind. This is its intel- 
lectual limit. 2d. It is relative to mankind, and limited by human 
e::perience. 3d. It is to be sought for only for the good of man- 
kind. This is its moral object and limit. 

These three results follow from the thorough acceptance of the 
*' relativity of human knowledge," which our philosophers pretend 
to accept, but always seek to evade. All who do accept it and all 
its consequences are Positivists. They rest upon Man and the 
World as we know it, or can know it. 

The Theoiog ans rest upon an objective God. 

The Metiiphysicians rest upon some nature, or type, or entity, or 
Ideal conception outside of man. 

The Spiritualists rest upon an assumed spirit outside of man. 

The Materialists rest upon a substance outside of man, as a 
reality. 

The Spencerians rest upon an order of the world outside of man. 

The Positivists see that one and all of tiiese outside supports are 
only so many sins against "relativity," and n t truths at all, nor in 
any way provable. They are merely like Space and Time, Force 
and Motion, modes of consciousness of Man. Man is the only real- 
ity. These outside supports are false as bases of Philosophy. 

But this is not the worst. Tiiey are sins against the moral object 
and limit of Philosophy. By placing the object of support outside 
of mankind and its welfare, Man becomes the secondary object, 
and plays second fiddle to the God, or thing, o; conception upon 
wdiich he is dependent. Thus he is always the weaker half of a 
hopeless dualism. He never can become complete or whole upon 
any of the^e theories. He is divided in mind, purpose, and hope. 
Anarchy is his portion without possible escape except to the Posi- 
tive Philosophy and Religion 

I say Relii>i()n, — for Positivism is a complete logic of the whole 
of Human Nature, and binds together the thoughts and activities 
of Man and directs them to Unity by a logic of the Sentiments. 
A religion that is a logic of the Sentiments is the sum^and crown- 
ing glory of Positivism. Out of the heart are the issues of life, 
of thought and action, and how, and for what, to keep and feed 
the heart, is ihei)r()hlem of all religions and worships. Positivism 
solves this problem by discovering the true obligations that are 
binding on man. It is tiius a religion pure and simple — the Uni- 
versal Faith, of which all others were but provisional precursors. 
This is the greate.-t scientitic discovery ever made. Yet our op- 
ponents — many of them men of great learning and abilitv — can not 
see it. They talk about Comte as having " devised" Humanity as 



APPEIxTDIX. 119 

God, — as tliougli lie might just as well have taken a cat or a clog or 
a monkey. He " devised " God just as Newton devis d gravitation, 
or a naturalist devises a new species of plants or animals ; that is, 
he discovered that Humanity v/as the grand or anism of life, in 
which all men and even all domestic animals converge, and which 
they serve as organs whether they will or no. This grand organ- 
ism sums up all knowledge, thought, feeling, and activity — all ex- 
istence. In and by it 'we live and move and have our being," and 
as parts of it we think, feel, and act, and not otherwise, 'io love 
and serve it is our highest duty ; we must therefore '' act from affec- 
tion, and think in order to act." This keeps the heart pure, and the 
mind exalted. 

This Organism, this Humanity, is the only true Supreme Beii^^g 
— scientilically so discovered and known, whether we will or no. 
If we as its organs get ourselves in Harmony with its laws and its 
progress through the ages, it will be well with us, and its grand 
course will be smooth and the millennium will not be a myth. If 
we fail to do this, misery to us and the generation is the result. It 
will by the laws of its existence go crushing on. The logic of 
Religion, of Human Sentiments,_is to see scientilically this order, 
and order our lives accordingly. How to do this. Positivism teaches 
and inspires us. Is not this the main thing of life? Is it not need- 
ed ? Is there unity of thought, feeling, and action elsewhere ? Can 
there be any other theory ? I see no pretense of an3^thing of the 
kind. I see confusion, misery, degeneration, all the result of the 
Babel of tongues and thoughts springing from hearts divided and 
running wild in anarchy. 

Hail! then, to Positivism the Religion of* Science, the Universal, 
the Human Faith that brings unity and rt^lief to man. How else 
can his misery end? The Feticliists are still a majority on the 
planet, so the provisional stages of theology and metaphysics will 
remain and be useful for fhose who can rise no higher. But men 
of science and advancement must unite upon the Scientitic Relig- 
ion, and then, though but a handful, their knowledge and good 
will be power — the power of God, and the kingdom of ihe world 
and man will be theirs ; and under their guidance Loye will erect 
a throne on the ruins of ignorance, superstition, and fear; the arts 
of Peace will flourish, and joyous nations will embrace each other 
in the bonds of ej:ernal brotherhood. 



POSITIVISM AND COTEMPORARY IMMORALITY. 

The following paper was read before the New York Positivist 
Society, Sunday, October 8th, 1871, by John Elderktn : 

Morality and religion, although closely associated, are inde- 
pendent in origin and distinct in "character. By their interacticm, 
the most important results in the progress of the race have been 



120 APPENDIX. 

acliieved. Religion, vfhicli had its origin in superstitious fear and 
wondei", engendered by phenomena inexplicable to man in a state 
of barbarism, by gaining control over the minds of large bodies of 
men, identified them with each other, and thus became the great 
organizer in history. The association of religion with moralit}^ 
wprs strictly logical. Moralit}^ had to do with conduct, wdth our 
relations to each other and natural phenomena. It is the term ap- 
plied to the right ordering of conduct. When man in his igno- 
rance personified the forces of nature and endowed them wdth hu- 
man volition, he created monsters of intelligence and w'ill which it 
v/as of the first importance to him to propitiate. Hence such an 
ordering of conduct as seemed most in accordance with this pur- 
pose became in his eyes right, and therefore moral. Religion in 
tliis w^ay gained empiie over conduct. But religion having its ori- 
gin in the relation of man to the external world, and having for its 
end the conciliation of deities which w^ere no other than the com- 
mon natural agencies of earth and sea personified or endowed with 
human Avills, constantly tended to the prescription of rules of con- 
duct calculated to bring man into harmony with his environment. 
Hence we find that the rules of conduct prescribed by nearly every 
religion, wdiich has, as it were, come to maturity, harmonize very 
conVpletely wdtli the standard of morality dictated by the highest 
knowledge. Religion has thereby not only tended to the develop- 
ment of humanity by a better adaptation of nian to his physical en- 
vironment, but by associating him in vast bodies all alike under its 
dominion, it has developed those immediate personal relations be- 
tween men themselves which constitute high moral character in 
the individual. The sense of responsibility for acts which, although 
of immediate personal advantage, are prejudicial to the interests of 
the community to whicli the individual behmgs, must be credited 
to the influence of religion, since no scientific knowledge of the im- 
moral influence of such acts has ever been generally disseminated; 
nor is it at all probable that if so disseminated it would have the 
power of restraining the selfish propensities and natural passions 
of tlie race. It is the consecration of life to the purposes of the 
whole body of co-religionists wdiich religion has exacted which has 
developed that subtile moral sense which has restrained men from 
the commission of acts which, although of direct personal advan- 
tage, are of indirect disadvantage to all others. In view of these 
lacts, wlien there shall be noticed in any large body of people a 
weal^ening of tlie moral bonds and a lowering of the moral stand- 
ard, it may be more than suspected that such is in consequence of 
the decay of the religious sanctions of morality. 

Throughout Europe and America the Judaic formula of religion 
lias heldsway lor many centuries. The ingrafting of tiie ideas of 
Jesus upon this old stock enlarged its power of assimilation, and 
made its acceptance possible to all nations and races. But the my- 
thological Jehovah of Judaism lias been the primary deity of the 
modern world. This deity has been in form a magnified man with 
supernatural adjuncts. As mankind has progressed in these latter 
ages, this deity lias gradually absorbed all characteristic human ex- 



APPENDIX. 121 

celleuces, until the Christian God has become an epitome of the 
highest humanity. 

In order to get at the peculiar infiuence of this Judaic rehgion 
we must consider the conception which the Jewish deit}' personi- 
fied, which will be the sum and substance of our Bible religion. 
This Jewish conception may be expressed as " the power in the 
world which makes for righteousness." According to Matthew 
Arnold, by The Eternal the Jews meant the Eternal righteous. 
They had dwelt upon the thought of conduct and right and wrong, 
until the unexplainable became to them the power which makes 
for righteousness ; which makes for it unchangeably and eternally, 
and is therefore called The Eternal. The word righteousness is the 
master word of the Old Testament ; cea-^e to do evil^ learn to do weU^ 
these words being taken in their plainest sense of conduct; offer 
the sctcnfice^ not of victims and ceremonies, as the way of the world 
in religion then was, but, offer the sacrifxe of righteousness. The 
great concern of the Kew Testament is likewise righteousness, but 
righteousness reached through particular means, righteousness by 
the power of Christ. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ 
depart from iniquity^ is a summar}^ of the ISTew Testament, as is, To 
him that ordereth his conversation right^ shall he shown the salvation of 
God, of the Old. This simple conception is the back-bone of the 
whole body of modern theology, in which it has been so completely 
embedded as to have been a good deal lost to sight. The worship 
of Jehovah has been devolved upon Christ and that impersonal en- 
tity, the Holy Ghost. Salvation has been made a matter of belief 
rather than of righteousness. Yet through all the metaphysical 
conceptions and doctrinal prescriptions of theologians there has run 
the thread of the law of right conduct; and hence the vast moral 
influence of Judaism upon the modern world. So far as morality 
now obtains, it is due to the loyalty to righteousness ingrained m 
the very web and woof of our hmiian nature by the Judaic formula, 
whether it be denominated Catholicism, Puritanism, or Calvinism. 
But according to Mr. Fronde, the power of Calvinism has waned ; 
and not only Calvinism but Judaism, Catholicism, Christianity. 
Jehovah is relegated to mythology, and Christ has taken his place 
among the great men of history. The discipline of the faith which 
they inspired has ftillen slack, and the mere shadow struggles to 
remain and preserve the power which inhered in the substance. 
• There is an utter decay of theology. In the place of an active and 
aggressive faith in the old forms and doctrines, there is either posi- 
tive hostility, passive unbelief, or partial acceptance. The sanc- 
tions of morality contained in the old religion are inoperative, save 
as inherited tendencies. In some instances the hostility to the doc- 
trines of Christianity has passed to the system of morals which it 
inculcated, and we liave skepticism allied with license. Through- 
out the whole Christian world we witness the gradual supp'anting 
of religious aims by the selfish and unscrupulous pursuit of wealth 
and worldlj^ honors. The great intellectual movement which has 
emancipated the modern mind from the doctrinal chimeras of the 
Middle Ages has tended to develop individual self-assertion, which 

6 



122 appejV[dix. 

grasps Tvilli unliallo'^ed hands whatever it requires for its own de- 
velopment. The most venerable institutions of society, such as 
marriage and the family, are assailed in the name of the individual. 
In the family, in trade, and in politics comes up one overpowering 
stench of sacrifices to the selfish desires of the individual. The 
selfishness which is at the root of our troubles is of the blackest and 
most unscrupulous type. 

The evil forces are not confined in their action to men's single 
lives. They organize great assaults on the common life of society. 
They construct bad goyernmen;s, generate pernicious customs, and 
take possession of the whvole machinery of national and social life. 
The reJgious cry out : " The decay of theology is the de ay of seri- 
ous and earnest thinking, the gradual di-appearance of iaith, the 
loss of learning, the ignor ng of the deeper questions of spiritual 
life." It is to be lollowed, if'not withstoo i very socm, "by th^ loss 
of vision which ends in the obliteration of mor.l distinctions, and 
by general selfi-^hness and worldliness." In their opinion, " Unless 
the interest in Christian theology is revived, Christianity will soon 
be in ruins, and the Grospel have to begin ils work anew in a demor- 
alized and atheistic world." This is the attitude of those who still 
hold to the old theology. It illustrates ti^.e despair which has seized 
upon all who seek a remedv in the old forms. 

While deprecating the present melancholy condition of human- 
ity, we can not, in the light of facts, but regard it as the inevitable 
accompaniment of a transition period. Until a new purpose of 
life in harmony with the present intellec ual mastery of the physi- 
cal world, and with -he sense of the infinity which hedges us round 
about, shall be offered to men, we can not look for an end of the 
prevailing doubt and disquietude, or for the substitution of heroic 
and altruistic for selfish aims. The effort of orthodox Christians 
to divert the mind of the present gen(nation to the old channels is 
like an effort to launch a great ship upon a mill stream. The old 
interpreta,iion of nature and the assumptions of theology are alto- 
gether too shallow for the broad and deep intelligence ot the mod- 
ern mind. In more than one respect, however, this old theology 
was far wiser and stronger than the philosophy of utilitarianism, 
w^hich would find in self-interest the new fountain of morality. It 
required a complete consecration of self to the highest conception 
of moral excellence; and although it held out the promise of future 
reward, it enjoined liim who would be first in this world to be the 
servant of all. The old theology did not say, " You must do as 
nearly right as you can, for thatis your best policy ; " but, " He that 
findeth liis life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake 
shall find it." Nor yet do we perceive that in the dei^cation of the 
unknowable of Heri)ert Spencer will there be provided anything 
beyond the philosoi)hy of self-interest to justify and secure the con- 
secration of human life. The unknowable can be conceived of as 
limiting human activity, and ms a force of which we ourselves par- 
take. The unknowable relates to what we are in essence, of which 
we can by no possibility know anything, since all our knowledge 
consists in a consciousness of differences or relations. The identi- 



APPENDIX. 123 

fication of the unknowable with Deity is a direct return to fetichism. 
There is no impulse to morality in the conception. Yv^hen we ac- 
knowledge that be3'ond the relations of things w^e can not go, we 
have admitted that so far as our lives are ordered by our wi 1, they 
raust be ordered upon a knowledge and understanding of those 
reliitions as the base upon which human conduct and effort rest and 
act. But the impulse to a moral ordering of life, individual and 
social, mu-t arise from a conviction of the converging power of 
Humanity as a grand whole, an oganism of which each individual, 
however humble, is a necessary and important part. The laws of 
human progress reveal this Humanity, and the conviction gives an 
impulse to a moral ordering of life immensly more real and pow- 
erful than the authorit}^ of an assumed Deity or the attractions of 
a chimerical heaven. It is only to the more general realization of 
it that we can hope for an adeq'jate moral impulse and order to 
sustain society as the old theology fails before the light of science. 
This is the teaching of Positivism. Positivism does not overlook 
the unknowable, but regards it from every point of view that it 
presents itself to man. As all that we know^ or can know mus-t 
come within the world of man. Positivism seizes upon man as a Kos- 
mos. We know nothing but what has come to us through human- 
ity. Biiiles, history, science, inherited capacities come to us through 
human agencies. No more justice, good-will, or pity are at work 
in the world than men put in motion. " Men are impatient at the 
slowness of God. He is as slow as they are ; His chariot goes just 
as fast as they drive. If good causes go on slow, it is because they 
give them no thought and make no effort to put them forward." 
The intelligence which looks before and after is man's intelligence, 
and there is notliing humiliating in tracing the course of its evolu- 
tion from the lowest forms of life. If there is any sense or con- 
sciousness of infinity, it exists in man. From the unity of human 
intelligence and the absolute inter-dependence of men. Positivism 
arrives at its solemn asseveration of the duty of every man to conse- 
crate his life to the good of the whole ; an asseveration which science 
and self-interest alike pronounce also best adapted to promote the 
highest good of each indiviclual. Positivism refers the obligations 
of duty as well as all sentiments of devotion to Humanit}^ conceived 
as a continuous whole, including the past, the present, and the fu- 
ture. " Ascending into the unknown recesses ot the past, embrac- 
ing the manifold present, and descending into the indefinite and 
unforeseeable future, forming a collective Existence without assign- 
able beginning or end, it appeals to that feeling of the Infinite 
which is deeply rooted in huAian nature," so says Mr. Mill ; and 
another authority adds : " We ma}^ still further admit that all mo- 
rality may be summed up in the disinterested service of the human 
race." The consecrati(m of life to the service of Humanity com- 
pletely fulfills the ideal of human usefulness. It is the outgrowth 
of all the tender and loving relationships of life. Man is bound up 
with his fellows in one grand organism as completely as any or:au 
is bound up with the body. The nervous connections are not more 
numerous than are the relations, sentiments, and affections which 



124 APPENDIX. 

attach man to society and make social well-being incompatible 
with his ill-doing. He can not evade the responsibility of being 
fcitlier a blessing or a curse to Humanity. Our best men feel un- 
consciously the claim which Humanity has upon them, and dedi- 
cate their lives to philanthropic enterprise and public beneficence. 
In tiie general acceptance ol the claims of Humanity, not only in 
the conduct of life, but as. the embodiment of all that is grand and 
exalted in human thought, Positivists hope for thj gradual amelio- 
ration and moralization ol society. 



POSITIVIST DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. 

In a discourse preached at Lyric Hall, April 9th, 1871, Eev. O. B. 
Frotliingham thus described the doctrine of Immortality as held by 
the " complete " Positivists. It is a fair statement of our view, and, 
on the whole, tolerably accurate : 

A grander kind of immortality yet — grander, though less affect- 
ing — is that we have in Humanity. We live in Humanity; we are 
vitally connected with-it as members. The human race is an 
organic being, that lives and grows from age to age, animated by 
one spirit, actuated by one power. "No one liveth to himself, and 
no man dieth to himself." Standing midway between those that 
have gone before and those that are to follow after him, he receives 
and transmits the qualities that build up the social world. Exist- 
ence is a process of receiving and giving. In us live the Mhers; 
in the children we shall live forever — every atom of our nature 
being taken up, absorbed, worked over, as material for the coming- 
man. As Lessing puts it: "The immortality of souls is indissolu- 
bly associated with the development of the race. We who live are 
not only the offspring of those who have lived before us, we are 
really of t#eir substance ; and it is thus* that we are immortals, liv- 
ing forever." 

This idea has, for thousands of years, been rooted in the world. 
Traces of it are found in the ancient religions. It was hinted at in 
the Egyptian doctiine of transmigration ; it was conveyed in the 
Indian doctrine of absorption; the Chinese acknowledg^id it in 
their worship of ancestors. The ancient Hebrews, previous to the 
Captivity, seem to have known no other doctrine of immortality 
than this. The dying IIel)rew was said to be "gathered to his 
fatliers;" and, as he passed away, the thought last in his mind w'as 
of the posterity in whom he should continue to live. The Hebrew's 
prayer was for long life and for children and grandchildren — gen- 
erations who should transmit his virtues and call him blessed. 
His kingdom of heaven was on earth ; his dream of eternity was 
the glorious future of his race. 

Gleams of the same belief shine through Pythagoras and Plato 



APPEI^DIX. 125 

and other sages of the old world. This is the belief of the Positiv- 
ists of our own time. They cherish no hope of private immortality ; 
that tiiey describe as the fond anticipation of egotistical minds. 
They have much to sa}^ about living again in those tliat shall suc- 
ceed' them — about makiug a contribution to the happiness of their 
posterity — adding something to the capacity, skill, or virtue of the 
coming time — leaving behind works that may follow them ; as they 
liave entered into the labors of others, they would make it worth 
while for others to enter into theirs, consoled by the knowledge 
that no fragment of living bread will be wasted, that no accent of 
the Hol}^ Ghost will be lost. 

The great master of this school declares that for every true man ' 
there are two forms of existence : the one temporal and conscious, 
the other unconscious but eternal ; the one involving the presence 
of a body which perishes, the other involving the action only of in- 
tellect and heart, which can not die — the latter alone worthy to be 
called thai noble immortality of the soul after which the best aspire. 
To his female com])anion — who complains that such an immortality 
appalls her, by giving to her a sense of her insignilicance that re- 
duces her to nothing, and who begs to have revived in her a feeling 
of lier own individual existence — the master replies, that the Great 
Being, Humanity, can not act except through individual agents; 
the collective life is but the result of the free concurrence of the 
efforls of simple individuals; all are nothing without each one, and 
each one, whde embodied and conscious, may feel himself to be an 
indispensable part of the living whole ; each is predestinated, and 
each is useful ; each has a message, because each is sent. In the 
same strain another writer of great power: "Whatever happiness 
we derive from pure regard to our fellow-beings, and €rom satisfac- 
tion in the general welfare, will cling to us as long as we are capa- 
ble of entertaining it; and whatever deeds we do, not 'in the flesh* 
for the gratitication of self, but ' in the spirit,' for the love of God 
and mankind, we ma^^ know to be as immortal in their nature as 
God and mankind are immortal." 

There is the conception — it must be confessed, a very impressive 
one to the calm, brave mind. For thirty years this gospel of im- 
mortality has been eloquently preached, not without effect. It has 
taken strong hold, not on the intellectual and passionless only, but 
on the working-people of mtelligence in Europe, who have thrown 
off Christianity and discarded faith in a personal God. It is a belief 
that deserves consideration and respect from all who consider the 
claims of truth and from all who respect the serious convictions of 
earnest men. If it is not to be lightly accepted, it is not to be 
lightly ridiculed, for it contains the elements of great power. 

The heartiest objection to it is, perhaps, its heartiest recommen- 
. dation. It effectually destroys egotism^ that taint in the common 
belief; it gives no encouragement to the seltish wish for a happi- 
ness purely personal; grants no indulgence to the longing tor a 
iheiiven of idle rest or unearned recreation ; rebukes the rash claim 
for private and unmerited rewards; says to men avaricious of 
crowns and thrones in the hereafter, what Jesus said to the auibi- 



126 APPENDIX. 

tlons young men wlio asked for seats at tlie right hand and left 
hand of his throne : " Wliat you ask is not mine to give." If pure 
disinterestedness be noble, then tliis doctrine has a character of ' 
supreme nobility; for it requires tlie renunciation of every interested 
or covetous passion ; it bids men labor for what they shall never 
shaji^, and tight for what they shall never enjoy. To any but the 
earnest, loving, and self-sacrificing it is cold and dreary; but to 
these it is inspiring and grand. 

The doctrine is human, purely human — human in its very texture. 
It rests on the fact of human fellovvship; it derives its vitality from 
the power of the sympathetic feelings: love — deep, unselfish, con- 
secrating love, for human beings as such, for human beings unre- 
lated, unknown, unborn — is its animating principle; the love of 
duty is its strength ; the faithful ministry of mutual service is its 
living pledge and b(md. It is nc^thing without others, many others, 
ail others ; its grandeur consists in the solemn perpetuity of that 
eternal Being called Man, whose existence rolls on through the ages, 
gathering might as it rolls, swelled by the great and little tributaries 
— tlie rivers and rivulets, the brooks and tiny brooklets, that add 
their rushing volumes or their trickling drops as it pours along. 

The doctrine is spiritual. Rightly apprehended, it is the only 
purely spiritual doctrine that is entertained ; for it puts out of sight 
altogether, and utterly abolishes, the consideration of " mine" and 
*' thine." The spiritual faculty is the faculty of living in ideas, 
truths, laws ; the spiritual' glory is the glory that comes of so living; 
the spiritual being is the being who lives " not for himself alone," 
not for his private enjoyment or satisfaction or development, but 
for that which is a great deal more than himself, for that which 
is not phe^iomenal and passing, but stable ami permanent, 
which will live when he is no more, the glory whereof he can 
increase and in a measure create, though in it he is absorbed. 
Lucifer forfeited his spirituality by setting up for himself. His 
brethren preserved theirs by their meek surrender to the perfect 
Will. As the spirituality of God consists, not in his being bodiless, 
but in his being self-renouncing — as a God who made the end of 
the 'universe to be his own glory would be precisely the reverse of 
spiritual— so is he the seeker of a spiritual immortality who desires 
to live in others' future more than in his own. 

The doctrine has its fine inspiration, too. The first aspect of it 
sends a chill to tlie heart. The ordinary man or woman feels anni- 
liilated by it. What is the ocean's debt to the drop of water? 
What is the sun's debt to a candle? What eff'ect has a summer 
shower to sweeten the bitterness of an Atlantic or Pacific sea? 
How shall tlie planet feel the leverage of my little finger? What 
contribution is my faint breathing to the mighty blasts of truth and 
conscience that must blow the vessel of Humanity onward ? This 
doctrine of immortality in the race may answer ibr a Buddha or a 
Moses, a Jesus or a Paid; it may satisfy a Pythagoras, a Sokrates, a 
Plato; the Augustines and Lutheivs, the Xaviers, St. Bernards, and 
Fcnelons may rejoice in it; Dante and Milton, Shakespeare and 
Leasing, may press it to their bosoms ; Mozart and Beethoven, Han 



APPENDIX. 127 

del and Mendelssohn, may wish nothing better; Leibnitz and Ba- 
con, Newton and Galileo, may dwell on it with rapture; it may fill 
the dream of Raffaelle, Angelo, Da Yinci: for their great lives 
poured into the ocean of humanity as the waters of the Mississippi 
pour into the Gulf, as the w^aters of the Orinoco pour into the At- 
lantic, heaving up the level of the sea, and thrusting its purple -cur- 
rent miles from the shore. They who are conscious of vast power 
can-rejoice in great influence; but those who are conscious only of 
great weakness can promise themselves no such recognition, and 
must droop for lack of inducement. 

If recognition were demanded, if an immortality of fame were the 
immortalit}^ coveted, this objection would be fatal, for the famous 
are the few. The mass are soon forgotten, living but a little while 
in the memory of their friends. But fame does not alwa3^s follow 
influence. Many a great benefactor is scarcely remembered even 
byname. Many are quite unknown. The mass of mankind make 
Humanity, not the few^ ; the multitude of the lowly and worthy de- 
cide wdiat the future of society shall be. He who contributes a life 
of simple truth, sets an example of daily honesty, makes a happy 
home, trains his children well, is a loj^al friend and a good citizen, 
practices the greatest duties in the smallest way, — does more to aug- 
ment the sum of moral power in the world than any artist how^ever 
admirable, any poet however sublime, or any genius however in- 
ventive. The doctrine of immortality in the race is peculiarly en- 
couraging to the humble, earnest toilers, the unprivileged and un- 
gifted; for their contributions are just wdiat they choose to make 
them, and what they add is that which is most indispensable to the 
common good. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn that this 
doctrine is especiall}^ popular among the artisans, wiio know that 
all the}^ can contribute is industry, patience, fidelity, intelligent skill, 
temperance, prudence, econom}^ but who know"- as none others do 
that these qualities are precisely what Humanit}^ needs in its strug- 
gle for life. I have spoken at some length on this vieW' of the im- 
mortal life because it is unfamiliar, and because it is misunderstood. 
I have spoken earnesth^, because I could not speak at length ; the 
words had to be vivid, because they had to be few. 



ID. 

SOCIAL UTOPIAS AND FORECASTS. 

The following remarkable article, w^hich appeared as a review in 
the New York Woi'ld of July 1st, 1871, is an evidence of the social 
value of Auguste Comte's labors. " Science," said he, " is previ- 
sion," and the proof that sociolog}^ is getting to be a science is 
shown by the f\ict that men are trjing to forecast the future. In- 
deed, this has now become an important and growing department 
of literature. We are breeding a race of prophets, who will really 



128 APPE]yDIX. 

give us some notion of the future — that is, the real earthly future, 
not the chimerical heaven of the theologian : 

Careful students of the characteristics and -tendencies of the age, 
Avhatevcr be their philosophical opinions or theological predilec- 
tions, can hardly fail to be impressed with the marked prouiinence 
of the human point of view in both. Examples are hardly neces- 
sary, but at random, may be instanced : (1) the glorification of man 
and idealization of his work as witnessed in the drift of cun-ent 
theological thought and poetry; (2) the pursuits of the veriest frag- 
ments and shadows of knowledge upon his primitive state — the 
manners and customs, lav»'s and economy, religion and philosophy 
of our barbarous progenitors near or remote ; and (3) the formation 
of social Utopias and forecasts more or less grounded on social and 
physical laws, which are supposed to picture either positively or 
negativel}^ still higher ideals of life than any transmitted to us by 
the past. 

The tv»o former have been discussed in these columns on several 
recent occasions; the latter is our present thenie.^ Social Utopias 
and forecasts are no new thing in the world. Since political ame- 
lioration has been an object of speculation and forethought, Utopias 
of various kinds have from time to time appeared. The form which 
these products of the imagination take is dictated by the phj^sical 
and social surroundings of the author, including under this head 
the attainments of his nation and of mankind at large in positive 
knowledge. Casting the eye over the past it is apparent that in 
theological ages, vriien the chimeras of tiie imagination, either be- 
neficent or baneiul, were actually realized to the reason, ''forecasts" 
took the nature of revelations or prophecies from God vouclisafed 
to a divine messenger, to be by him delivered to his less favored 
countrymen, or those v^diom the Deity would preserve from the 
threatened evils. It is important to bear in mind in this connec- 
tion — and this remark has general application — that in times of 
fancied securit}' and luxurious ease these prophecies were always 
of disaster to be averted only by vigorous action. Such were the 
warnings of the mighty prophets of Israel and Jndah, whose w^ords 
even now, after the lapse of nearly thirt}' centuries, and under such 
changed conditions, ahnost make our ears still tingle whli their 
weighty denunciations. On the other hand, the Utopias then con- 
structed always had more or less bearing upon a future life or a past 

* THE COMING RACE. William Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh andr London. 

1871. 
TIIE GERMAN CONQL^EST OF ENGLAND IN 1875 ANI) THE BATTLE 

OF DORKING; or. REMINISCENCES OF A VOLUNTEER. Philadelphia: 

Porter & Coates. 1871. 
TIIE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF A PHILOSOPHER IN THE 

FAMOUS EMPIRE OF HULEE IN TIIE YEAR A.D. 2071. Fi^asers Mag- 
azine for June. 
ANNO DOMINI 2071. Translated from the Dutch by Dr. A. V. W. Bikkeks. 

London : \V. Tegg. 1871. 
TIIE NEXT GENERAITON. By John Fkancis Maguire, M.P. 3 vols. 

Loudon : Hurst & BlackcU. 1871. 



APPENDIX. 129 

life of which nothing was known except what the god or gods chose 
to reveal. And here again a characteristic of these schemes should 
not be forgotten. It is that if foi*ecasts are of danger when the sky 
is sei-ene, Utopias nearly always deal with security and peace in the 
midst of adversity and vvar. 

Perhaps the use of the terms forecast and Utopia with the fore- 
going significations and distinctions will be objected to as being 
arbitrary. To a certain extent it is so, and all use of such terms i3 
more or less arbitrary. But there seems to be this real distinction 
between the two words : a forecast is a prediction founded upon a 
larger or smaller generalization of facts, while a Utopia is an ideal 
construction out of materials either real or fictitious. With the eye 
firmly fixed upon some rottenness in the constitution of a state 
which has perhaps passed unperceived by the great majority of 
even acute observers, but. which has proved in the past the ruin of 
other communities, some thinker boldly predicts disaster when 
everyvone else is applauding to the echo the general prosperity. 
This is a true social forecast — which is more often of adversity than 
of its opposite. But these forecasts might, on the contrary, predict 
the greatness of a people or their eminence in some branch of 
knowledge or art from certain earmarks which had been invariably 
found connected with them in other societies. Before passing on 
to illustrate the meaning of Utopias, let us glance at a few instances 
of recent sociological predictions. 

The existence of the Paris Commune has set very many heads 
to thinking and turning over the pages of books perhaps in many 
instances long unturned. In his eloquent article upcm that govern- 
ment, and partial defense of its leaders and action, Mr. Frederic 
Harrison has called attention to some prophecies of Comte, which 
seem, to say the least,- very remarkable pieces of social prevision. 
For instance, this philosopher appears to have predicted that wo*'k- 
ingmen would yet rule France ; and certainly if the old adage that 
Paris was France had proved true, this would have been the case. 
This prophecy appears to have been made about 1848, but the 
prophet held to its substantial ti'uth up to the day of his death, 
Avhen the workingmen's chances were much smaller than the}" now 
are for achieving such distinction. He predicted also the continual 
failure of Parliamentary government in France ; and Comte's fol- 
lowers aver that such is the case, and that the best minds of that 
country are even now^ turning away to something more solid than 
the deliberations of bribed assemblies of talkers for a real restora- 
tion of their country's prosperity. A bold work, published in 1864 
by M. F. Le Play, entitled "La Reforme Sociale en France," which 
is very applicable to the present crisis, actually pi"o posed, as Comte 
had done some forty years before, to terminate the I'evolutionary 
regime, and to substitute for the antagonist theories which date trom 
1789 " common opinions based upon the methodical observation 
of social facts." Another and i)erhaps more curious jn-evision of 
Comte was that in order for France and Paris to t;dve their appro- 
priate places in .the march of civilization, it would become neces- 
sary to remove the ugly statue of Napoleon I. in the Place Yeu- 



130 APPENDIX. 

dome, because it formed a standing menace and insult to the 
conquered nations whose humiliation was there immortalized. The 
Commune, as is well known, destroyed it ; but that organization 
was too short-lived to carry out, even if it was willing, the supple - 
mentai-y parts of the programme: that the retrograde Emperor's 
dust should be transported back to St. Helena, whence it should 
never have been taken, and that a statue of the great Charlemagne, 
tlie true founder of the medieval European empire, should replace 
that of the Corsican butcher, '' the child of infidelity and the reac- 
tion." 

Passing from this instance, which may be looked upon as a happy 
guess, a coincidence, or a recommendation worked out, according 
to the individaal temper of the reader, one of Comte's followers — 
M. Eugene Semerie — in a recent pamphlet with the rather striking 
motto, " Wanted, a new Atheism which will deny the god Major- 
ity ^^ has cited a curious passage from tlie " Philosophie Positive," 
written in 1842, in which his master says that, though few iiave 
pei'ceived the fact, still the air is full of the very worst kind of in- 
testine broils and strifes, not only between classes, between laborers 
and employers, but even between the city and the country.* M. 
Semerie, writing in the midst of the Yersaillist siege of Paris, of 
course pointed triumphantly to the then present state of affairs as 
proof of the wisdom and scientific foresight of his philosophical 
teacher Comte also predicted the division of France into seven- 
teen republics — an idea which the Commune endeavored to work 
out with such poor materials. Despite Mazzini, it looks as if the 
cure of France lay in this reform, though how to carry it out prac- 
tically is the desideratum. 

Again, the union of the scientists and the workingmen was long 
ago recommended as necessary to the completeness of both, and 
foreseen as inevitable by this thinker. Curiously enough, the writ- 
er's attention has been called to a seemingly corroborative evidence 
that this is actually taking place, at least in England. A well-in- 
formed writer in the July 6r<:tZ«.r?/ (" Republicanism in England") 
thus speaks of the London artisan : 

The London artisan of to-day has very different teachers from wild, gifted, 
crazy Fergus O'Connor. He has among his own class cool, sensible, practical 
men like Odger and Applegarth and Pol ter— men who never indulge in any bom- 
bast about the proldaire and the brotherhood of Humanity. He has leaders and 
teachers outside his own class in men like Professor Beesly and Frederic Har- 
rison for example — men of culture and keen thought, fearless and often fantastic 
in their views, but always able to defend them by the closest logic and the most 
bewildenng array of facts and ligurcjs. I hold that one of the mod remarlcable 
phenomena of En(/lis]i, polUical life to-day is this extraordinary/ and apparently/ 
instinctive fraternization, tietwoen tlie ''thinkers^'' and the tvorkuignien. On al- 
most all public questions these seem to stand together. If, as I believe, the 
workingman of London vs^as making a somewhat foolish exhibition last autumn, 
Avhcn he allowed his devotion to the republican principle to drown all sober con- 
Bid(;ration of the right and wrong of a controversy, if in fact he was making a 
fetich of the mere name of republic, it must be remembered that Beesly and 
Harrison and Ludlow, and the great majority of the school to which they belong, 
were doing just the same thing! On most political subjects now, if you want to 
know what the London Vv'orkingman believes, you have only to inquire what Mill 



* Vol. VL, 1st ed. (1812), p. 874; 2d and 3d cds., p. 755. 



APPENDIX. 131 

and Huxley and their less renowDed companions and followers believe. Thus, 
therefore, did the political condition of England present itself to my mind when, 
after an absence of two years, I endeavored to study it impartially and coolly. 
I take it that the artisans of the towns are about to become an active and direct 
political power. The Reform bill of 1881-32 brought in middle-class wealth to 
compete with aristocratic rank. The Reform bill of 1868 has brought in artisan 
labor to share the competition. I have wholly mistaken the meaning of what I 
saw and heard, if the workingmen of the English cities have not quite made up 
their minds to the conviction that republican democracy is the best form of gov- 
ernment. The English Church seems to have become almost wholly alienated from 
the sympathies of the workingmau. One branch of it concerns itself about candles 
and screens and genuflexions ; another about denouncing the Papists and the 
Lady of Babylon,. Between the two the workmgman hcis been allowed jjlenty of 
time to learn that there are such persons as Mill and Hvxley. On the side of the 
■yvorkingman there is growing up that school I have already mentioned of keen, 
clever, bold, and penetrating political writers, whose tendency is undoubtedly 
toward republicanism, even if they do not preach republicanism as a creed — men 
who subject every existing institution of the English political system to a crit." 
cism as sharp and searching as if •' the wisdom of our ancestors '■' really had no 
manner of sanctity about it all. Decidedly the age is a skeptical one in English 
politics, and the artisan of the cities is a very Thomas in his reluctance to be- 
lieve in the reality of anything he has not had a chance of testing for himself. 
Loyalty of the old-fashioned kind he has wholly ceased to feel or to respect. He 
has just as much faith in the sanctity of the monarchical principle as he has in 
the power of the sovereign's touch to heal the scrofulous. 

At the risk of wearying the reader's patience, it is perhaps worth 
mentioning that when socialism had the upper hand among reform- 
ers, and when the legacy of the Revolution was the further distri- 
bution and if possible equalization of wealth, Comte, himself a 
reformer, urged the individualit}" of property and responsibility, 
and predicted that great aggregations of wealth, instead of becom- 
ing rarer, would become more common. And certainl}' it does look 
as if such was the tendency of the times. 

About thirty years ago Heinrich Heine, upon whom, according 
to Mr. Matthew Arnold, fell the mantle of Goethe, wrote to his 
native country a series of letters dated at Paris. His predictions 
of the coming of the Commune are certainly wonderful, and show 
how closely, foreigner as he was, he had studied French society. 
After ridiculing in the keenest vein the correspondents who write 
to their journals about court f^tes, dinner parties, and dress, taking 
as an instance the fact that sack historians as they passed by for 
centuries the early Christian church to whom the future belonged, 
lie says (the Spectator, June 10) : 

It is by no means my intention here to relapse into homiletical considerations ; 
I only wish to show by an example in what a triumphant manner the distant 
future might justify the predictions v/ith which I have often spoken of a little 
congregation that, very like the Ecdena iiressa of the first century, is at present 
despiseli and persecuted, but which is spreading a propaganda with a warmth of 
faith and a sinister spirit of destruction that also recall the Galilean beginnings. 
I mean the Commune, the only party in France worthy of earnest attention. The 
? confession, that the future belongs, to the Commune, I make in a tone of fore- 
' boding and of the greatest anxiety, which is not, alas! by any means a mask. 
Truly, only with fear and trembling can I think of the time when these dark pic- 
ture-stormers shall attain empire;^ with their horny hands they will break up 
those marble statues of beauty so dear to my heart'; they will shatter all those 
fanciful playthings and gewgaws of art which poets loved so miicli : they will cut 
down my laurel groves and plant potatoes there ; tlie lilies, which neither spun 
nor toiled, and yet were as gorgeously arrayed as Solomon in all his glory, will 
be uprooted from the soil of society, unless, forsooth, they take a spimile in 
hand; the roses, those lazy brides of the ni^'htingales, will incur the same fate; 



132 APPENDIX. 

the ni^hrini^ales, nscless fion<,'eters, v/iti be expelled: and ah! my "Book of 
Songs ^' will serve the grocer for paper bags to pour coffee or snuff into for the 
old women of the future. Nev-v^rtheless, I franxly acknowledge this same Com- 
munism, that is so opposed to all my interests and inclinations, exercises a spell 
on my soul from whicli I can not free myself: two voices in its favor rise in my 
breast, two voices that will not be silenced, which perhaps are after all only diabol- 
ical instigations ; but. be that as it may, they master me, and no power of exor- 
cism can overcome them. For the lirst of these voices is the voice of logic. " The 
devil is a logician," said Dante. A hori-ible syllogism entangles me, and if I can 
not refute the proposition '"All men have a right to eat," then I am forced to sub- 
mit to all its conseciucnces. When I reflect on this, I run the risk of losing my 
senses; I see all the demons of truth dancing round me in triumph, and at last 
the high-souled despair of my heart seizes on me, and I cry out, " It is tried and 
condemned long since, this old society. Let it have its due ! Let this old world 
be destroyed, in which innocence was overridden, in which selllshness prospered 
80 famously, in which man was preyed upon by man ! Let them be utterly over- 
thrown, those whited sepulchers on w-hich falsehood and flagrant injustice sat 
enthroned ! And blessed be the grocer who will one day make bags out of my 
poetry to pour coffee or snuff into for the good, honest old women who in our 
present unjust AvorM have to go without these luxuries. Fiat justitia, pereaf, 
mu/idus/ '■'' The second of the commanding voices that hold me prisoner is ^stili 
more powerful and mor<^ devilish than the first, for it is the voice of hatred — of 
the hatred I bear to a party of which the greatest opponent is Communism, and 
which, therefore, is a common enemy of ours. I si)eak of the national party in 
Germany ; those false patriots whose patriotism consists only in a stupid aversion 
To foreigners and neighboring nations, and who daily pour out their gall on 
France especially. All. my life long have I loathed and combated them, and now 
that my sword is sinking from the grasp of a dying man, I feel comforted by the 
conviction that Communism,^ which will find them the first thing in its path, 
will cdve them the cou}) de grace ; and by no blow with a club assuredly, -l)ut by a 
simple kick the giant will crush them, as one crushes a wretched worm. That 
will be its first step. From hatred to the representatives of nationalism, I could 
almost feel affection for the Communists. At all events they are no 'hypocrites, 
with religion and Christianity constantly on their lips ; the Communists in truth 
have nol-eligion (nobody is perfect), the Communists are even atheists (which 
certainly is a great sin), but they acknowledge as chief dogma the most absolute 
cosmopolitism, a universal love for all peoples, an equality of possessions, and a 
brotherly relation of all men, the free citizens of this earth. This fundamental 
doctrine is the same as the Gospel once preached, so that in spirit and in truth 
the Communists are far more Christian than our so-called patriots, those narrow- 
minded champions of exclusive nationalism. 

Heine liits on the Yendome Colifmn as the first victim to Com- 
uiunistic fuiy, and speaks of M. Tliiers in wliat now seems almost 
prophetic langua^^e : ' 

The mind of M. Thiers overtops every intelligence around him, though there 
is more than one of lofty stature among them. He is the cleverest head in 
I'^rance, although it is rei)orted he says so himself. lie can speak from morning 
till midnight unweariedly, continually putting forth new, brilliant thoughts, 
flashes of intelligence, delighting, instructing, dazzling the hearers; fireworks, 
so to speak, of eloquence. And yet he conceives rather the material than the 
ideal requirements of mankind; he perceives not that last link by which earthly 
I)henomena are attached to heaven; he has no understanding for great social in- 
stitutions. In one of his recent speeches he owned, with almost simple candor, 
iiow little he trusted the immediate future, and how every day was a respite; he 
has a sharp ear. and already distinguishes the hov»iing of the wolf Fenri. an- 
nouncing the kingdom of Ilela. Will despair at the inevitable not some day sud- 
denly impel him to over-violent measures? 

To add to these prophecies of tliirty or forty years ago, one quite 
recent, it is worth}^ of mention that the distinguished physiological 
exix'rimenter, Herr du Bois Keyniond, rector of the University of 
Berlin, delivered last July a lecture on France and its weakness, in 
the closing paragraph of which he used the following remarkable 
language : 



APPEXDIX. 133 

This war must end in the destruction of the second erxipirc. Germany's safety 
absolutely requires tliis result. But this is not all. We trust the war will have 
another effect, namely, to cure France forever of its pretensions to domineer: of 
its insolence ; of its rapacious instincts, or to sum it all in (me word, of its ckau- 
vinisme. Doubtless it would have been better if the extinction o? chauxinisme 
had been obtained without the effusion of blood; by the insensible progress of 
civilization ; by the diffusion of public instruction ; by civil and religious free- 
dom. Fate has decided otherwise. If chauviaisme be incurable, if the French 
refuse to be cured, then one of these days all Europe will force on them the deci- 
sive cure the Anglo-Saxon on the other side of the Atlantic forces on the red man. 
'-fiurope can not exterminate France as America may at last exterminate the red 
man. but it may happen that France is to be stifled in a still more terrible manner. 
It may happeii that, like malefactors banished from civilized society, French- 
men may in their despair turn their arms against each other, and that at the 
end of these sanguinary collisions the Gallo-Roman nation may follow Spain in 
the abyss where she has been shattered to atoms. 

Before proceeding, it is perhaps proper to say that the method 
pursued by Comte, Heine, and others — especially by a writer in The 
Modern Thinker, who dealt with " Steam as a Factor in Sociology," 
and the " Future of Marriage," as well as by the writers of the 
works on our list — is entirely distinct from the guess-work of the 
past, either satirical or otherwise. Tlie prophecies of Bishop Hall 
and Bishop Berkeley (if indeed he was the author of " Signor Gau- 
dentio di Lucca "), " The Voyage to Liliput " of Swift, Sir Thomas 
More's " Utopia," and the many other similar w^orks that will occur 
to the reader, w^ere mere inspirations of the individual mind. That 
some of the predictions turned out as foretold is certain, but they 
were merely liappy coincidences. The Utopias thus formed are in 
the same category — they were intended to present an ideal state of 
existence, like nothing in earth or heaven. On the contrary, the 
new order of forecasts and titopias are founded upon observations. 
They follow out with more or less povrer the indications of past 
liistory as revoaled in general physiological and sociological laws. 
And that they are not so misleading as is sometimes thought is cer- 
tain from the general accuracy of the previsions of Heine and 
Comte w^th regard to the social future of France. Whatever be 
the merit of any or all of these attempts at social prognostication, 
there can be little question that only by their multiplication can 
any really extended knowledge of the political and social future 
come to us. 

All the predictions so far dealt with have been serious and affirm- 
ative. There is, however, a negative and satirical variety of social 
forecast, a powerful specimen of which w^e have in the second 
piece upon our list, Blackwood's article upon '' The Battle of Dork- 
ing." This can hardly be called a social Utopia. It does not point 
out the inevitable ; it merely makes a stirring appeal from a nega- 
tive standpoint for action. It is the exact counterpart of tlie blast 
of the old prophets of Israel, and there can be little doubt that it will 
have more effect upon military reform and reorganization in Englan:! 
than any number of two-hour speeches from the Treasury or op- 
position benches, or any number of leaders in the ' Thunderer." 
In one way this " Battle of Dorking" is satirical and pungent, but 
those who go to it to seek the pungent wit of Swift will lose their 
journey. lu fact, the most noticeable thing about it is the entire 



134 appejN^dix. 

absence of partisanship. The author has an object, and it is appar- 
ent throughout ; but like all earnest men he desires attainment of 
his object without much regard to the instruments by which it is 
accomplished. 

The third article upon our list, Fraser's " Travels of a Philoso- 
pher in the Famous Empire of Hulee, a.d. 2071," forms a transi- 
tion between the true forecast and the Utopia. It is the latter, inas- 
much as it tries to construct a race of men such as the author con- 
ceives the prevalence of the present materialistic and scientific 
tendencies of the age would really mold. It is a forecast, and a 
v/arning one, in the sense that it satirizes these tendencies unmerci- 
fully, thus preaching in trumpet tones the efficacy of the spiritual- 
istic corner-stone so often rejected of science. To those interested 
in these philosophical disputes hardly anything more suggestive or 
stimulating has appeared in many a day than these " Travels." 
The portraiture of the Biichner, Mill, Spencer, Comte, and other 
schools more or less allied, incorrectly grouped under the single 
head of materialists and thus doing very great violence to their in- 
dividual tenets, is evidently the product of a mind w^ell acquainted 
w^ith, yet still in a measure antagonistic to, them. 

" The Coming Race " and " Anno Domini 2071 " are, on the other 
liand, Utopias pure and simple. They are clear and decided in- 
stances of the application of poetic imagination to politics, which 
has lately become so common as to be decidedly remarkable. The 
great thinker to whom frequent reference has been made above ap- 
pears to have been one of the first to clearly perceive the true char- 
acter of this artifice in sociological method. In 1848 he wrote thus : 

The application of poetry to social phenomena, which constitute the chief 
sphere both of art and science, is very imperfectly understood as yet, and can 
hardly be said to have begnr., owing to tlie want of any true theory of society. 
The real object of so applying it is that it should regulate the ^rmation of social 
Utopias, subordinating them to the laws of social development as revealed by 
history. Utopias are to the art of social life what geometrical and mechanical 
types are to their respective arts. In these their necessity is universally recog- 
nized, and surely the necessity can not be less in problems of much greater in- 
tricacy. Accordingly we see that, notwithstaudiug the empirical condition in 
which political art has hitherto existed, every great change has been ushered in 
one or two centuries beforehand by a Utopia bearing some analogy to it.— Comte: 
" A General View of Positivism,''^ translated by Dr. J. 11. Bridges, p. 303. 

The Positivist poet will naturally be led to form prophetic pictures of the re- 
generation of man, viewed in every aspect that admits of being ideally repre- 
sented. Systematic formation of Utopias will in fact become habitual, on the 
distinct understanding that, as in e\^' other branch of art, the ideal shall be 
kept in subordination to the real. When it is once understood that the sphere 
of imagination is simply that of explaining and giving life to the conclusions of 
reason, the severest thinkers will welcome its influence, because so far from ob- 
scuring truth it will give greater distinctness to it than could be given by science 
unassisted. Utopias have, then, their legitimate purpose, and Positivism will 
Htrongly encourage their formation. They form a class of poetry which will 
prove of material service in giviiyg a foretaste of the beauty and greatness of the 
new life that is now offered to the individual, to the familv, and to society. — Id.^ 
p. 335. 

Tliere can be no question that there is somewhat of a prejudice 
in the practical mind against these attempJs. While the Platonic 
view of their structure and function was the only one systematic- 
ally urged, it was right and proper that this prejudice should exist 



APPENDIX. 135 

and be fostered. But when the very contrary view of both wn? 
taken, when, as in the above extract, which iaithfully represents 
the latest conception of tlieir utility and scope, they are seen to 
represent but in concrete and living form the abstract and lifeless 
conclusions of reason, this prejudice becomes not only irrational 
but hurtful. The Utopias now struck out take some general resuU 
of science, some tendencies at work in society, and follow them out 
to their legitimate logical conclusion. They picture man with his 
roots far back in the past, but as living under changed conditions, 
brought about by his conquests over nature, or over his own evil 
passions. The most conservative person can surely see nothing 
baneful in the attempt to forecast the alterations to be made in the 
structure of nations and even of mankind at large by the future 
"extensions of steam and electrical communications by land and 
water. The same may be said for the utilization of the results of 
organic chemistry in the preparation of cheaper, more palatable, 
more easily transported, and, in a word, more suitable food for the 
human family and their assistants — the domestic animals. There 
is no use in following this subject further, as every intelligent reader 
will see at a glance that the applications of machinery to work 
now exclusively performed by manual labor, the researches now 
being made upon the growth of plants and animals under various 
artificial conditions of light and heat, tlie physiological inquiries 
upon the functions of the nervous system and the results of recent 
study upon the mental past of the race, not to speak of the late 
events which have occurred in this country and in Europe, would 
form topics of absorbing interest if worked up into the form of 
wdiat, for want of a bett63r name, must be called social Utopias. 
The great error to be avoided in all these constructions, and one 
into which nearly all writers of them have fallen, is the belief that 
the future will be the exact prolongation of the past. As has been 
well said by a Saturday Reviewer : 

This doctrine may be described as prophecy made easy. That it is not an ex- 
haustive or accurate account of the phenomena may indeed be easily demonstra- 
ted. If a similar dogma had prevailed, for example, jast before the appearance 
of Christianity, it would have led to deceptive conclusions. The gradual spread 
of the Roman empire over the whole world would have been one'inl'erence, and 
another might have been the simple disappearance of all genuine religious be- 
lief. What really happened could have suggested itself to no one. In the same 
way, if we select properly the standing point of the prophet, we might make the 
gradual triumph of the Papacy, or the conquest of Europe by Mohammedanism, 
or the universal rule of France or of Spain, appear to be among the inevitable 
events of the future. It would be easy to suggest any number ofcases in which 
a particular intellectual or social change seemed to be destined to the conquest 
of the whole earth. Dynlsties and doctrines have periods of development, cul- 
mination, and decay ; and if you select awy jjart of the ascending period, the sim- 
ple formula we are discussing would, of course, imply that they are destined to 
unlimited triumph. People who attempt to look forward generally forget this 
obvious teaching of past experience. They assume, for example, as an ultimate 
and indisputable fact, that we shall continue to become more and more demo- 
cratic. We do not mean to assert the contrary, but it is hard to see on what grounds 
this doctrine can be so confidently maintained. Why should there not come ^ 
period at which the democratic forces will, in American langnuge. be " played 
out," and society be reconstructed on some new principle ? We seem already, 
in some respects, to have gotten to the bottom of the hill, and it is difficult to see 
how we are to get much farther. Wheu the social service has been thoroughly 



136 APPE^'DIX. 

reduced to one dead level, is it not probable that a new order-of distinctions Trill 
begin to make themselves manifest, and that reconstruction of whicli we hear so 
ranch and see so little will at last become palpable ? A new process of crystal- 
lization should follow the complete decomposition ; and it would be much more 
interesting if the creators of fresh Utopias could throw light upon the new order 
of things which is to emerge from chaos at some distant period, instead of sim- 
ply following out the tendencies of the day to what is supposed to be their logical 
conclusion. 

Perhaps the only Utopia ever -worked out in the spirit which this 
thoughtful v.riter recommends is the most stupendous specimen ot* 
the class— the " S3^st^me de Politique Positive" — and it seems as if 
this very fact that it w-orks out a future in certain parts unlike the 
past ma}^ form its future fame, while it now deters ordinary readers 
frcmi its perusal because of its assumed chimerical character. 
Comte's Utopia is, in another respect, a great improvement upon any 
of those now under review, inasmuch as it endeavors to make out 
the moral and esthetic future of the race as well as its merely scien- 
tific and material future. Just in this point are " The Coming Race," 
and " 2071 " weak. Neither believes that there will be any moral 
and esthetic improvement brought about by the advancement of 
learning, but rather a retrogradation in both. Let us hope such a 
future as that will not be realized. 

In glancing into any of the present race of Utopias or forecasts 
two tilings in addition to those pointed out before are apt to strike 
the attention of the attentive reader — the entire absence of super- 
natural machinery of any kind, and the necessary continuity of the 
structu.res with some at least of those now in existence or which ex- 
isted in the past. In the present usage of words *' The Apocalypse" 
of John would seem a veritable Utopia, but it has little or nothing 
to do with this world ; it proposes a rest for the weary after death. 
The same ma3^be said of St. Augustine's " De Civitate Dei," which, 
as its author was a great logician, is closely reasoned, but is little 
applicable to human wants upon this terrestrial ball. Turning to 
the w^ork of one of the great thinkers of all time, Plato, who was 
certainly little tinctured with supernaturalism, it is apparent upon 
even a cursory examination of " The Republic" and '' The Laws" 
that this giant proposed to build his model community out of men 
with hopes and fears molded by and inherited from the past, and 
yet lie intended to start out witii small cognizance of this same past. 
Whatever may be said of the former tendency, the latter was cer- 
tainly a mistake. One of the later note-Avorihy attempts to con- 
struct such a mythical community was that of Rousseau in the last 
century with his contrat social^ savages without vices and a great ab- 
straction, Nature. Supernatural Utopias have certainly gone out of 
fashion. So deeply are men centred in earth and its work that they 
find little time and less inclination to go be3^ond, and are rather 
willing to trust to an unknown hereafter if they have acted well 
their part here. 

In closing this long and rather rambling discussion of a very in- 
teresting subject — that of predictions more or less accurate (none of 
them can be entirely so) of the social future — it will not be out of 
place to say that readers 0^ the works up(;ii our list, and for that 



APPEIS^DIX. 137 

matter those t\1io wish to follow up the indications here given, may 
expect to tind an atmosphere very bracing to healthy kmgs. Such 
works are as good as an}^ stimulants to be .found in current litera- 
ture. They open up new* tracivs for thought, point to what may be 
in part, and prcipare the way for it. 



THE DUTIES OF WEALTH. 

Mr. Peter Cooper, in an address delivered at the Cooper Union, 
on May 31st, 1871, expressed so concisely, and 3^et fully, the Positiv- 
ist doctrine touching the duties of wealth, that I reproduce his 
words here : 

But, having also acquired what is regarded as riches, if the use 
I have made of them renders it proper for me to give any fj.dvice 
or speak a word of encouragement to others wdio, by the will of 
God, are intrusted- with the great responsibility of wealth, I feel 
impelled to record my conviction, derived from personal experi- 
ence, that the rich man vJio Ttgards his icea.lth as a sacred timst to he 
used for the icelfare of Ms felloio-men^ will surely derive more true 
enjoyment from it in this world than from the most lavish expendi- 
ture on mere personal enjoyments and social display. I do not pre- 
tend to prescribe any standard of expenditure for others ; and I am 
quite ready to subscribe to the doctrine, that a just and faithful 
trustee should be liberally paid for his services, and sh^^uld not be 
restricted in the reasonable gratification of his desires so long as 
the rights of others are not thereby infringed; and I desire to give 
the fullest recognition to the sacredness of private property Imd 
the conservation of capital, as for the best interests of society and 
all the members thereof; hut I can not shut my eyes to the fact that 
the 'production of loealth is not the icork of any one man, and the ac- 
quisition of great fortunes is not possible icithout the co-operation of 
multitudes of w.en ; ajid that, therefore, the individuals to whose lot 
these fortunes fall, whether by inheritance or the laws of production and 
trade, should never lose sight of the fact, that as they only hold them by 
the will of society, expressed in statute law, so they should administer 
them as trustees for the benefit of society, as inculcated by the moral law. 

When rich men are thus brought to regard themselves as trustees, 
and poor men learn to be industrious, economical, temperate, self- 
denying, and diligent in the acquisition of knowledge, then the 
deplorable strife between capital and labor tending to destroy their 
fundamental, necessary, and irrefragable harmony will cease, and 
the world will no longer be afflicted with such uimatural industrial 
conflicts as we have seen during the past century in every quarter 
of the civilized globe, and latterly on so great a scale in tliis coun- 
try, arraying those whom Nature intended to be lirm allies and in- 
separable friends, into hostile camps in which the great law of love 
and mutual forbearance is extinguished by sellish passions. 



INDEX. 



A. PAGE 

Activity, human, makes earth inhabitable 10 

Animals, lower, possess the higher emotions 19 

Art to ennoble the fair Humanity 14 

Artists, a portion of the priestly body 35 

Atheism and theism 7 

C. 

Charity condemned by Positivism ,. 61 

Christianity and modern science and criticism 6 

'' has no polity 19, 109 

" subjective conception of Deity in 12 

'' true God of. 25 

Commune of Paris of 1871 105 

Comte and Evolutionism 51 

" and Spencer on conception of God 11, 26 

" anticipates Darwin in moral science 44 

*' discoveries of, in Sociology 48 

" misconceptions of work of 80 

" on disease 53, 107 

'' on divorce 71 

" on scientific specialism 32, 92' 

'' prophecies of 105, .129 

Cooper, Peter, on the duties of wealth 137 

Cultus, Positivist 12, 23, 27 

D. 

Darwin on the basis of human morality 18, 44 

Demons, universality of the belief in 19 

Devil, meaning of the conception 88 

E. 

Education, human element in 25 

" Positivist 99 

Elderkin, J., on Positivism and cotemporary immorality 119 

Emotions, higher, need training 29 

" '' perfected by exercise 23 

'^ " possessed by inferior animals 19 

Evans, H., on purpose, scope, and need of Positivism , 117 

F. 

Faith, necessity for a'hew 6, 117 

Force, anthropomorphic conceptions of 86 

Forces, indestructible and co-related 8 

Free-will and fate 91 

Frothingham, Rev. O. B., on Positivist immortality 124 

Froude, J. A., on personal immortality 16 



140 IKDEX. 

G. PAGE 

Geelog}-, Comte and 95 

God, analysis of the conception. 1] , 26 

" wo: thiessness of discussions about 87 

Government 85, 103 

* H. 

Hamilton, Sir W., analysis of the God-conception 11 

Happiness, " the greatest," in what immoral 18 

Harrison, Frederic, and the working-man 112 

Heine, H., on the coming of the Commune 130 

Humanity, existence of, demonstrated in the ^' Philosophic Positive " 40 

" not devised, but demonstrated 119 

the Positivist God : 7, 12, 119 

I. 

Hlusions of the race in the past 19 

Immortality, doctrine of a personal, immoral 1" 

'' Positivist doctrine of 124 

Individualism, attitude of Positivism toward 60 

L. 
Lecky, W. E. H., on demons and witchci-aft -. 19 

M. 

Man, immortality of 16, 124 

Mansei, Dean H: L., incogniscibility of God 11 

Marriage, Positivist, indissoluble 71 

'' possible future of 75 

Method, the subjective 39 

Mill, John Stuart, on land reform 68 

'' ''\ '' on the Positivist cultus 27 

Mohammed, the God of the Islamite '. 25 

Morality, Positivist 18, 44 

Miiller, Prof. Max, studies in comparative theology 6 

P. 

Positivism 5, 117 

" ' and First and Final causes 8 

"- and immortality 16, 124 

" and recent science 33 

'' and the "greatest-happiness" principle 18 

'' and the l^bor question 57 

*' and the woman agitation 70 

" attitude toward cotemporary immorality 119 

*' consecrates all the great religions of the past 27 

'' has no Apostle's Creed 113 

" idealizes human excellence 24 

*' international policy of 109 

'' not atiieism 7 

*' not materialism 30 

" on domestic service 102 

" on education 98 

*' on government 85) 103 



INDEX. * 141 

PAGE 

Positivism on prevailing economical maxims 4*') 

'' rejects individnalisni 60, 84 

" repudiates force in the solution of moral problems 98 

'' sul>iftitutes Duties for Rights 47 

" the most emotional of religions 15 

" the Spiritual Power in 31 

" the Temporal. Power in 57 

" the worship of 23 

Positivists, and the " Xo government " cry 85 

'' and the Paris Commune of 1871 105 

" leading, in France and England Ill 

Prayer, Positivist 22, 24 

Providence, human verms divine 9 

R. 

Religion in education 100 

Positivist 14, 118 

'' the human element in 25 

S. 

Science and religious theories 6 

" Comte's condemnation of specialism in 32. 92 

'' indicates the trne Supreme Being ^ 14 

Scientists, the priests of the future 33 

" and the workingmen 130 

Service, civil 104 

'' domestic 102 

Sociology, Comte' s discoveries In 20, 49 

'' inquiries into the laws of 96 

Spencer. Herbert, analysis of the God-conception 9, 26 

" ' on the Woman question 82 

Spiritualism, a disease * 20 

S wedenborg. E. , discovers angels and demons 12 

T. 

Teachers chosen hap-hazard 96 

Theism more rational than atheism ; ^. . . 7 

Theologies, all, have some value 26 

^• 

TJnitarianism, cause of barrenness of • 25 

Utopias, social, and forecasts 127 

W. 

Wealth, duties of, to the scientists 38 

'' '* '• the workingmen 61 

"" pocial in its purpose 50 ,137 

Witchcraft, universality of the belief in 19 

Woman question, Positivism on the 70 

'• " Spencer on the 5^2 

" represents Humanity 77 

worship of. 23, 27 



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